em.getReference ?

[elkner]

Just saw the use case for em.getReference() in HibernateEntityManager/reference/en/html/objectstate.html:

child = new Child();
child.SetName("Henry");
Parent parent = em.getReference(Parent.class, parentId); //no query to the DB
child.setParent(parent);
em.persist(child);

My question: What happens, if there is no parent with such an parentID and one does not touch the parent?

According to the spec, the persistence provider is not required to throw a NoSuchEntityException (i.e. not until it is accessed first time).
So one has to rely on a FK exception or does persist access the parent or is it possible to get an inconsistent state ?

[epbernard]

if you use getReference, you know that the reference exists.
persist does not access the parent

your FK constraints might save your butt here

[elkner]

OK, thanx for the enlighten me ;-)