hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · AnnotationException

Collection '<role>' is declared with a raw type and has an e

Error message

Collection '<role>' is declared with a raw type and has an explicit 'targetEntity'

What it means

Error "Collection '<role>' is declared with a raw type and has an explicit 'targetEntity'" thrown in hibernate/hibernate-orm.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/boot/model/internal/CollectionBinder.java:1534

				modelsContext(),
				usage -> {
					if ( result[0] == null
							&& nullIfEmpty( usage.graph() ) == null
							&& usage.subgraph().length == 0 ) {
						result[0] = usage;
					}
				}
		);
		return result[0];
	}

	TypeDetails getElementType() {
		if ( isDefault( targetEntity ) ) {
			if ( collectionElementType != null ) {
				return collectionElementType;
			}
			else {
				throw new AnnotationException( "Collection '" + safeCollectionRole()
						+ "' is declared with a raw type and has an explicit 'targetEntity'" );
			}
		}
		else {
			return targetEntity;
		}
	}

	SecondPass getSecondPass() {
		return new CollectionSecondPass( collection ) {
			@Override
			public void secondPass(Map<String, PersistentClass> persistentClasses) {
				bindStarToManySecondPass( persistentClasses );
			}
		};
	}

	/**

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Either parameterize the collection with a generic type and drop targetEntity, or keep the raw type with explicit targetEntity, not both.

When it happens

Trigger: A collection mapping uses an annotation or annotation combination that Hibernate forbids for collections.

Common situations: Collections carrying conflicting ordering/sorting (@Sort* vs @OrderBy/@OrderColumn), misplaced @JoinColumn, or annotations only valid for single-valued associations.

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c14a4f24f677c1db. Report an issue: GitHub.