[java] @UniqueConstraint and @Column(unique = true) in hibernate annotation

What is difference between @UniqueConstraint and @Column(unique = true)?

For example:

@Table(
   name = "product_serial_group_mask", 
   uniqueConstraints = {@UniqueConstraint(columnNames = {"mask", "group"})}
)

And

@Column(unique = true)
@ManyToOne(optional = false, fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
private ProductSerialMask mask;

@Column(unique = true)
@ManyToOne(optional = false, fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
private Group group;

From the Java EE documentation:

public abstract boolean unique

(Optional) Whether the property is a unique key. This is a shortcut for the UniqueConstraint annotation at the table level and is useful for when the unique key constraint is only a single field. This constraint applies in addition to any constraint entailed by primary key mapping and to constraints specified at the table level.

See doc

In addition to Boaz's answer ....

@UniqueConstraint allows you to name the constraint, while @Column(unique = true) generates a random name (e.g. UK_3u5h7y36qqa13y3mauc5xxayq).

Sometimes it can be helpful to know what table a constraint is associated with. E.g.:

@Table(
   name = "product_serial_group_mask", 
   uniqueConstraints = {
      @UniqueConstraint(
          columnNames = {"mask", "group"},
          name="uk_product_serial_group_mask"
      )
   }
)

In addition to @Boaz's and @vegemite4me's answers....

By implementing ImplicitNamingStrategy you may create rules for automatically naming the constraints. Note you add your naming strategy to the metadataBuilder during Hibernate's initialization:

metadataBuilder.applyImplicitNamingStrategy(new MyImplicitNamingStrategy());

It works for @UniqueConstraint, but not for @Column(unique = true), which always generates a random name (e.g. UK_3u5h7y36qqa13y3mauc5xxayq).

There is a bug report to solve this issue, so if you can, please vote there to have this implemented. Here: https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH-11586

Thanks.