Enumerations in JPA

Question

Hi all
I have a question about enumerations,
class Test{
   public enum Gender{
     Male, Female
@Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
@Column(length=1)
private Gender gender;
}my question is this correct?
my goal is to keep only one character of the enumration
thanks for help

Answer 1

Hi guys,
here is what I did according to your suggestions
package com.entities;
import com.enumeration.Gender;
import java.io.Serializable;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.EnumType;
import javax.persistence.Enumerated;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.NamedQuery;
@Entity
@NamedQuery(name="Employee.findAll", query="SELECT e FROM Employee e")
public class Employee implements Serializable {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
    private Integer id;
    @Column(name="nom", length=30)
    private String nom;
    @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
    @Column(length=1)
    private Gender gender;
    public Integer getId() {
        return id;
    public void setId(Integer id) {
        this.id = id;
    public String getNom() {
        return nom;
    public void setNom(String nom) {
        this.nom = nom;
    public Gender getGender() {
        return gender;
    public void setGender(Gender gender) {
        this.gender = gender;
    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        int hash = 0;
        hash += (id != null ? id.hashCode() : 0);
        return hash;
    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object object) {
        if (!(object instanceof Employee)) {
            return false;
        Employee other = (Employee) object;
        if ((this.id == null && other.id != null) || (this.id != null && !this.id.equals(other.id))) {
            return false;
        return true;
    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "com.entities.Employee[ id=" + id + " ]";
package com.enumeration;
public enum Gender {
    M("Male"), F("Female");
    private String description;
    private Gender(String description) {
        this.description = description;
    public String getDescription() {
        return description;
}and it generates the table employee with the gender column as a varchar(1) witch is the desired result
thanks a million for help
best regards rashid