Doctrine Orm

Doctrine 2 ORM Documentation
Release 2
Doctrine Project Team
Mar 04, 2018

Contents
1 Getting Help 3
2 Getting Started 5
3 Mapping Objects onto a Database 7
4 Working with Objects 9
5 Advanced Topics 11
6 Tutorials 13
7 Changelogs 15
8 Cookbook 17
9 Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation! 19
i
ii
Doctrine 2 ORM Documentation, Release 2
The Doctrine documentation is comprised of tutorials, a reference section and cookbook articles that explain different
parts of the Object Relational mapper.
Doctrine DBAL and Doctrine Common both have their own documentation.
Contents 1
2 Contents
CHAPTER 1
Getting Help
If this documentation is not helping to answer questions you have about Doctrine ORM don’t panic. You can get help
from different sources:
• There is a FAQ with answers to frequent questions.
• The Doctrine Mailing List
• Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in #doctrine on Freenode
• Report a bug on GitHub.
• On Twitter with #doctrine2
• On StackOverflow
If you need more structure over the different topics you can browse the table of contents.
3
4 Chapter 1. Getting Help

CHAPTER 2
Getting Started
• Tutorial: Getting Started with Doctrine

• Setup: Installation & Configuration
5
6 Chapter 2. Getting Started

CHAPTER 3
Mapping Objects onto a Database
• Mapping: Objects | Associations | Inheritance

• Drivers: Docblock Annotations | XML | PHP
7
8 Chapter 3. Mapping Objects onto a Database

CHAPTER 4
Working with Objects
• Basic Reference: Entities | Associations | Events

• Query Reference: DQL | QueryBuilder | Native SQL
• Internals: Internals explained | Associations
9
10 Chapter 4. Working with Objects

CHAPTER 5
Advanced Topics
• Architecture
• Advanced Configuration
• Limitations and known issues
• Commandline Tools
• Transactions and Concurrency
• Filters
• NamingStrategy
• Improving Performance
• Caching
• Partial Objects
• Change Tracking Policies
• Best Practices
• Metadata Drivers
• Batch Processing
• Second Level Cache
11
12 Chapter 5. Advanced Topics

CHAPTER 6
Tutorials
• Indexed associations
• Extra Lazy Associations
• Composite Primary Keys
• Ordered associations
• Pagination
• Override Field/Association Mappings In Subclasses
• Embeddables
13
14 Chapter 6. Tutorials
CHAPTER 7
Changelogs
• Migration to 2.5
15
16 Chapter 7. Changelogs
CHAPTER 8
Cookbook
• Patterns: Aggregate Fields | Decorator Pattern | Strategy Pattern

• DQL Extension Points: DQL Custom Walkers | DQL User-Defined-Functions
• Implementation: Array Access | Notify ChangeTracking Example | Working with DateTime | Validation | Entities
in the Session | Keeping your Modules independent
• Integration into Frameworks/Libraries CodeIgniter
• Hidden Gems Prefixing Table Name
• Custom Datatypes MySQL Enums Advanced Field Value Conversion
17
18 Chapter 8. Cookbook
CHAPTER 9
Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation!
9.1 Tutorials
9.1.1 Getting Started with Doctrine
This guide covers getting started with the Doctrine ORM. After working through the guide you should know:
• How to install and configure Doctrine by connecting it to a database
• Mapping PHP objects to database tables
• Generating a database schema from PHP objects
• Using the EntityManager to insert, update, delete and find objects in the database.
Guide Assumptions
This guide is designed for beginners that haven’t worked with Doctrine ORM before. There are some prerequisites for
the tutorial that have to be installed:
• PHP (latest stable version)
• Composer Package Manager (Install Composer)
The code of this tutorial is available on Github.
Note: This tutorial assumes you work with Doctrine 2.4 and above. Some of the code will not work with lower
versions.
What is Doctrine?
Doctrine 2 is an object-relational mapper (ORM) for PHP 5.4+ that provides transparent persistence for PHP objects.
It uses the Data Mapper pattern at the heart, aiming for a complete separation of your domain/business logic from the
19
persistence in a relational database management system.

The benefit of Doctrine for the programmer is the ability to focus on the object-oriented business logic and worry
about persistence only as a secondary problem. This doesn’t mean persistence is downplayed by Doctrine 2, however
it is our belief that there are considerable benefits for object-oriented programming if persistence and entities are kept
separated.
What are Entities?
Entities are PHP Objects that can be identified over many requests by a unique identifier or primary key. These classes
don’t need to extend any abstract base class or interface.
An entity contains persistable properties. A persistable property is an instance variable of the entity that is saved into
and retrieved from the database by Doctrine’s data mapping capabilities.
An entity class must not be final, although it can contain final methods.
An Example Model: Bug Tracker
For this Getting Started Guide for Doctrine we will implement the Bug Tracker domain model from the
Zend_Db_Table documentation. Reading their documentation we can extract the requirements:
• A Bug has a description, creation date, status, reporter and engineer
• A Bug can occur on different Products (platforms)
• A Product has a name.
• Bug reporters and engineers are both Users of the system.
• A User can create new Bugs.
• The assigned engineer can close a Bug.
• A User can see all his reported or assigned Bugs.
• Bugs can be paginated through a list-view.
Project Setup
Create a new empty folder for this tutorial project, for example doctrine2-tutorial and create a new file
composer.json with the following contents:
{
"require": {
"doctrine/orm": "2.4.*"
},
"autoload": {
"psr-0": {"": "src/"}
}
}
Install Doctrine using the Composer Dependency Management tool, by calling:
$ composer install
20 Chapter 9. Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation!

This will install the packages Doctrine Common, Doctrine DBAL, Doctrine ORM and Symfony Console into the
vendor directory. The Symfony dependencies are not required by Doctrine but will be used in this tutorial.
Add the following directories:
doctrine2-tutorial
|-- config
`-- src
Obtaining the EntityManager
Doctrine’s public interface is through the EntityManager. This class provides access points to the complete
lifecycle management for your entities, and transforms entities from and back to persistence. You have to configure
and create it to use your entities with Doctrine 2. I will show the configuration steps and then discuss them step by
step:
<?php
// bootstrap.php
use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Setup;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager;
require_once "vendor/autoload.php";
// Create a simple "default" Doctrine ORM configuration for Annotations

$isDevMode = true;
$config = Setup::createAnnotationMetadataConfiguration(array(__DIR__."/src"),
˓→$isDevMode);
// or if you prefer XML

//$config = Setup::createXMLMetadataConfiguration(array(__DIR__."/config"),
˓→$isDevMode);
// database configuration parameters

$conn = array(
'driver' => 'pdo_sqlite',
'path' => __DIR__ . '/db.sqlite',
);
// obtaining the entity manager

$entityManager = EntityManager::create($conn, $config);
The require_once statement sets up the class autoloading for Doctrine and its dependencies using Composer’s au-
toloader.
The second block consists of the instantiation of the ORM Configuration object using the Setup helper. It assumes
a bunch of defaults that you don’t have to bother about for now. You can read up on the configuration details in the
reference chapter on configuration.
The third block shows the configuration options required to connect to a database. In this case, we’ll use a file-based
SQLite database. All the configuration options for all the shipped drivers are given in the DBAL Configuration section
of the manual.
The last block shows how the EntityManager is obtained from a factory method.
Generating the Database Schema
Doctrine has a command-line interface that allows you to access the SchemaTool, a component that can generate a
relational database schema based entirely on the defined entity classes and their metadata. For this tool to work, a
9.1. Tutorials 21
cli-config.php file must exist in the project root directory:
<?php
// cli-config.php
require_once "bootstrap.php";
return \Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Console\ConsoleRunner::createHelperSet($entityManager);
Change into your project directory and call the Doctrine command-line tool:
$ cd project/
$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:create
Since we haven’t added any entity metadata in src yet, you’ll see a message stating “No Metadata Classes to process.”
In the next section, we’ll create a Product entity along with the corresponding metadata, and run this command again.
Note that as you modify your entities’ metadata during the development process, you’ll need to update your database
schema to stay in sync with the metadata. You can rasily recreate the database using the following commands:
$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:drop --force

$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:create
Or you can use the update functionality:
$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:update --force
The updating of databases uses a Diff Algorithm for a given Database Schema. This is a cornerstone of the
Doctrine\DBAL package, which can even be used without the Doctrine ORM package.
Starting with the Product Entity
We start with the simplest entity, the Product. Create a src/Product.php file to contain the Product entity
definition:
<?php
// src/Product.php
class Product
{
/**
* @var int
*/
protected $id;
/**
* @var string
*/
protected $name;
public function getId()

{
return $this->id;
}
public function getName()

{
return $this->name;
}

public function setName($name)

{
$this->name = $name;
}
}
When creating entity classes, all of the fields should be protected or private (not public), with getter and setter methods
for each one (except $id). The use of mutators allows Doctrine to hook into calls which manipulate the entities in ways
that it could not if you just directly set the values with entity#field = foo;
The id field has no setter since, generally speaking, your code should not set this value since it represents a database
id value. (Note that Doctrine itself can still set the value using the Reflection API instead of a defined setter function)
The next step for persistence with Doctrine is to describe the structure of the Product entity to Doctrine using a
metadata language. The metadata language describes how entities, their properties and references should be persisted
and what constraints should be applied to them.
Metadata for an Entity can be configured using DocBlock annotations directly in the Entity class itself, or in an external
XML file. This Getting Started guide will demonstrate metadata mappings using two methods, but you only need to
choose one.
• PHP
<?php
// src/Product.php
use Doctrine\ORM\Annotation as ORM;
/**
* @ORM\Entity @ORM\Table(name="products")
**/
class Product
{
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\Column(type="integer") @ORM\GeneratedValue **/
protected $id;
/** @ORM\Column(type="string") **/

protected $name;
// .. (other code)
}
• XML

<doctrine-mapping xmlns="http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping
http://raw.github.com/doctrine/doctrine2/master/doctrine-
˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Product" table="products">

<id name="id" type="integer">
<generator strategy="AUTO" />
</id>
<field name="name" type="string" />

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
9.1. Tutorials 23
The top-level entity definition tag specifies information about the class and table-name. The primitive type
Product#name is defined as a field attribute. The id property is defined with the id tag. It has a generator
tag nested inside, which specifies that the primary key generation mechanism should automatically use the database
platform’s native id generation strategy (for example, AUTO INCREMENT in the case of MySql, or Sequences in the
case of PostgreSql and Oracle).
Now that we have defined our first entity and its metadata, let’s update the database schema:
$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:update --force --dump-sql
Specifying both flags --force and --dump-sql will cause the DDL statements to be executed and then printed to
the screen.
Now, we’ll create a new script to insert products into the database:
<?php
// create_product.php <name>
$newProductName = $argv[1];
$product = new Product();

$product->setName($newProductName);
$entityManager->persist($product);
$entityManager->flush();
echo "Created Product with ID " . $product->getId() . "\n";
Call this script from the command-line to see how new products are created:
$ php create_product.php ORM
$ php create_product.php DBAL
What is happening here? Using the Product class is pretty standard OOP. The interesting bits are the use of the
EntityManager service. To notify the EntityManager that a new entity should be inserted into the database, you
have to call persist(). To initiate a transaction to actually perform the insertion, you have to explicitly call
flush() on the EntityManager.
This distinction between persist and flush is what allows the aggregation of all database writes (INSERT, UPDATE,
DELETE) into one single transaction, which is executed when flush() is called. Using this approach, the write-
performance is significantly better than in a scenario in which writes are performed on each entity in isolation.
Next, we’ll fetch a list of all the Products in the database. Let’s create a new script for this:
<?php
// list_products.php
$productRepository = $entityManager->getRepository('Product');
$products = $productRepository->findAll();
foreach ($products as $product) {

echo sprintf("-%s\n", $product->getName());
}
The EntityManager#getRepository() method can create a finder object (called a repository) for every type
of entity. It is provided by Doctrine and contains some finder methods like findAll().

Let’s continue by creating a script to display the name of a product based on its ID:
<?php
// show_product.php <id>
$id = $argv[1];
$product = $entityManager->find('Product', $id);
if ($product === null) {

echo "No product found.\n";
exit(1);
}
echo sprintf("-%s\n", $product->getName());
Next we’ll update a product’s name, given its id. This simple example will help demonstrate Doctrine’s implementation
of the UnitOfWork pattern. Doctrine keeps track of all the entities that were retrieved from the Entity Manager,
and can detect when any of those entities’ properties have been modified. As a result, rather than needing to call
persist($entity) for each individual entity whose properties were changed, a single call to flush() at the
end of a request is sufficient to update the database for all of the modified entities.
<?php
// update_product.php <id> <new-name>
$id = $argv[1];
$newName = $argv[2];
$product = $entityManager->find('Product', $id);
if ($product === null) {

echo "Product $id does not exist.\n";
exit(1);
}
$product->setName($newName);
After calling this script on one of the existing products, you can verify the product name changed by calling the
show_product.php script.
Adding Bug and User Entities
We continue with the bug tracker example by creating the Bug and User classes. We’ll store them in src/Bug.php
and src/User.php, respectively.
<?php
// src/Bug.php
/**
* @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="BugRepository")
* @ORM\Table(name="bugs")
*/
9.1. Tutorials 25
class Bug
{
/**
* @ORM\Id @ORM\Column(type="integer") @ORM\GeneratedValue
* @var int
*/
protected $id;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="string")
* @var string
*/
protected $description;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="datetime")
* @var DateTime
*/
protected $created;
/**
* @var string
*/
protected $status;

{
return $this->id;
}
public function getDescription()

{
return $this->description;
}
public function setDescription($description)

{
$this->description = $description;
}
public function setCreated(DateTime $created)

{
$this->created = $created;
}
public function getCreated()

{
return $this->created;
}
public function setStatus($status)

{
$this->status = $status;
}
public function getStatus()

{

return $this->status;
}
}
<?php
// src/User.php
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="users")
*/
class User
{
/**
* @ORM\Id @ORM\GeneratedValue @ORM\Column(type="integer")
* @var int
*/
protected $id;
/**
* @var string
*/
protected $name;

{
return $this->id;
}

{
return $this->name;
}

{
}
}
All of the properties we’ve seen so far are of simple types (integer, string, and datetime). But now, we’ll add properties
that will store objects of specific entity types in order to model the relationships between different entities.
At the database level, relationships between entities are represented by foreign keys. But with Doctrine, you’ll never
have to (and never should) work with the foreign keys directly. You should only work with objects that represent
foreign keys through their own identities.
For every foreign key you either have a Doctrine ManyToOne or OneToOne association. On the inverse sides of these
foreign keys you can have OneToMany associations. Obviously you can have ManyToMany associations that connect
two tables with each other through a join table with two foreign keys.
Now that you know the basics about references in Doctrine, we can extend the domain model to match the require-
ments:
9.1. Tutorials 27
<?php
// src/Bug.php
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
class Bug
{
// ... (previous code)
protected $products;
public function __construct()

{
$this->products = new ArrayCollection();
}
}
<?php
// src/User.php
class User
{
protected $reportedBugs;
protected $assignedBugs;

{
$this->reportedBugs = new ArrayCollection();
$this->assignedBugs = new ArrayCollection();
}
}
Note: Whenever an entity is created from the database, a Collection implementation of the type
PersistentCollection will be injected into your entity instead of an ArrayCollection. This helps Doc-
trine ORM understand the changes that have happened to the collection that are noteworthy for persistence.
Warning: Lazy load proxies always contain an instance of Doctrine’s EntityManager and all its dependencies.
Therefore a var_dump() will possibly dump a very large recursive structure which is impossible to render and read.
You have to use Doctrine\Common\Util\Debug::dump() to restrict the dumping to a human readable
level. Additionally you should be aware that dumping the EntityManager to a Browser may take several minutes,
and the Debug::dump() method just ignores any occurrences of it in Proxy instances.
Because we only work with collections for the references we must be careful to implement a bidirectional reference
in the domain model. The concept of owning or inverse side of a relation is central to this notion and should always
be kept in mind. The following assumptions are made about relations and have to be followed to be able to work with
Doctrine 2. These assumptions are not unique to Doctrine 2 but are best practices in handling database relations and
Object-Relational Mapping.
• In a one-to-one relation, the entity holding the foreign key of the related entity on its own database table is
always the owning side of the relation.

• In a many-to-one relation, the Many-side is the owning side by default because it holds the foreign key. Accord-
ingly, the One-side is the inverse side by default.
• In a many-to-one relation, the One-side can only be the owning side if the relation is implemented as a Many-
ToMany with a join table, and the One-side is restricted to allow only UNIQUE values per database constraint.
• In a many-to-many relation, both sides can be the owning side of the relation. However, in a bi-directional
many-to-many relation, only one side is allowed to be the owning side.
• Changes to Collections are saved or updated, when the entity on the owning side of the collection is saved or
updated.
• Saving an Entity at the inverse side of a relation never triggers a persist operation to changes to the collection.
Note: Consistency of bi-directional references on the inverse side of a relation have to be managed in userland
application code. Doctrine cannot magically update your collections to be consistent.
In the case of Users and Bugs we have references back and forth to the assigned and reported bugs from a user, making
this relation bi-directional. We have to change the code to ensure consistency of the bi-directional reference:
<?php
// src/Bug.php
class Bug
{
protected $engineer;
protected $reporter;
public function setEngineer(User $engineer)

{
$engineer->assignedToBug($this);
$this->engineer = $engineer;
}
public function setReporter(User $reporter)

{
$reporter->addReportedBug($this);
$this->reporter = $reporter;
}
public function getEngineer()

{
return $this->engineer;
}
public function getReporter()

{
return $this->reporter;
}
}
<?php
// src/User.php
class User
{
9.1. Tutorials 29
protected $reportedBugs;
protected $assignedBugs;
public function addReportedBug(Bug $bug)

{
$this->reportedBugs[] = $bug;
}
public function assignedToBug(Bug $bug)

{
$this->assignedBugs[] = $bug;
}
}
I chose to name the inverse methods in past-tense, which should indicate that the actual assigning has already taken
place and the methods are only used for ensuring consistency of the references. This approach is my personal prefer-
ence, you can choose whatever method to make this work.
You can see from User#addReportedBug() and User#assignedToBug() that using this method in userland
alone would not add the Bug to the collection of the owning side in Bug#reporter or Bug#engineer. Using
these methods and calling Doctrine for persistence would not update the Collections’ representation in the database.
Only using Bug#setEngineer() or Bug#setReporter() correctly saves the relation information.
The Bug#reporter and Bug#engineer properties are Many-To-One relations, which point to a User. In a
normalized relational model, the foreign key is saved on the Bug’s table, hence in our object-relation model the Bug is
at the owning side of the relation. You should always make sure that the use-cases of your domain model should drive
which side is an inverse or owning one in your Doctrine mapping. In our example, whenever a new bug is saved or an
engineer is assigned to the bug, we don’t want to update the User to persist the reference, but the Bug. This is the case
with the Bug being at the owning side of the relation.
Bugs reference Products by a uni-directional ManyToMany relation in the database that points from Bugs to Products.
<?php
// src/Bug.php
class Bug
{
protected $products = null;
public function assignToProduct(Product $product)

{
$this->products[] = $product;
}
public function getProducts()

{
return $this->products;
}
}
We are now finished with the domain model given the requirements. Lets add metadata mappings for the Bug entity,
as we did for the Product before:
• PHP
<?php
// src/Bug.php

/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Bug
{
/**
**/
protected $id;
/**
**/
protected $description;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="datetime")
**/
protected $created;
/**
**/
protected $status;
/**
* @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="User", inversedBy="assignedBugs")
**/
protected $engineer;
/**
* @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="User", inversedBy="reportedBugs")
**/
protected $reporter;
/**
* @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Product")
**/
protected $products;
// ... (other code)

}
• XML


˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Bug" table="bugs">

9.1. Tutorials 31

</id>
<field name="description" type="text" />

<field name="created" type="datetime" />
<field name="status" type="string" />
<many-to-one target-entity="User" field="reporter" inversed-by=

˓→"reportedBugs" />
<many-to-one target-entity="User" field="engineer" inversed-by=
˓→"assignedBugs" />
<many-to-many target-entity="Product" field="products" />

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Here we have the entity, id and primitive type definitions. For the “created” field we have used the datetime type,
which translates the YYYY-mm-dd HH:mm:ss database format into a PHP DateTime instance and back.
After the field definitions, the two qualified references to the user entity are defined. They are created by the
many-to-one tag. The class name of the related entity has to be specified with the target-entity attribute,
which is enough information for the database mapper to access the foreign-table. Since reporter and engineer
are on the owning side of a bi-directional relation, we also have to specify the inversed-by attribute. They have to
point to the field names on the inverse side of the relationship. We will see in the next example that the inversed-by
attribute has a counterpart mapped-by which makes that the inverse side.
The last definition is for the Bug#products collection. It holds all products where the specific bug occurs. Again
you have to define the target-entity and field attributes on the many-to-many tag.
Finally, we’ll add metadata mappings for the User entity.
• PHP
<?php
// src/User.php
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="users")
*/
class User
{
/**
* @var int
**/
protected $id;
/**
* @var string
**/
protected $name;
/**
* @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Bug", mappedBy="reporter")
* @var Bug[] An ArrayCollection of Bug objects.

**/
protected $reportedBugs = null;
/**
* @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Bug", mappedBy="engineer")
* @var Bug[] An ArrayCollection of Bug objects.
**/
protected $assignedBugs = null;
// .. (other code)
}
• XML


˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="User" table="users">

</id>
<field name="name" type="string" />
<one-to-many target-entity="Bug" field="reportedBugs" mapped-by="reporter

˓→ " />
<one-to-many target-entity="Bug" field="assignedBugs" mapped-by="engineer
˓→" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Here are some new things to mention about the one-to-many tags. Remember that we discussed about the inverse
and owning side. Now both reportedBugs and assignedBugs are inverse relations, which means the join details have
already been defined on the owning side. Therefore we only have to specify the property on the Bug class that holds
the owning sides.
Update your database schema by running:
$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:update --force
Implementing more Requirements
So far, we’ve seen the most basic features of the metadata definition language. To explore additional functionality,
let’s first create new User entities:
<?php
// create_user.php
$newUsername = $argv[1];
$user = new User();
9.1. Tutorials 33
$user->setName($newUsername);
$entityManager->persist($user);
echo "Created User with ID " . $user->getId() . "\n";
Now call:
$ php create_user.php beberlei
We now have the necessary data to create a new Bug entity:
<?php
// create_bug.php <reporter-id> <engineer-id> <product-ids>
$reporterId = $argv[1];
$engineerId = $argv[2];
$productIds = explode(",", $argv[3]);
$reporter = $entityManager->find("User", $reporterId);

$engineer = $entityManager->find("User", $engineerId);
if (!$reporter || !$engineer) {
echo "No reporter and/or engineer found for the given id(s).\n";
exit(1);
}
$bug = new Bug();

$bug->setDescription("Something does not work!");
$bug->setCreated(new DateTime("now"));
$bug->setStatus("OPEN");
foreach ($productIds as $productId) {

$product = $entityManager->find("Product", $productId);
$bug->assignToProduct($product);
}
$bug->setReporter($reporter);
$bug->setEngineer($engineer);
$entityManager->persist($bug);
echo "Your new Bug Id: ".$bug->getId()."\n";
Since we only have one user and product, probably with the ID of 1, we can call this script as follows:
php create_bug.php 1 1 1
See how simple it is to relate a Bug, Reporter, Engineer and Products? Also recall that thanks to the UnitOfWork
pattern, Doctrine will detect these relations and update all of the modified entities in the database automatically when
flush() is called.

Queries for Application Use-Cases
List of Bugs
Using the previous examples we can fill up the database quite a bit. However, we now need to discuss how to query
the underlying mapper for the required view representations. When opening the application, bugs can be paginated
through a list-view, which is the first read-only use-case:
<?php
// list_bugs.php
$dql = "SELECT b, e, r FROM Bug b JOIN b.engineer e JOIN b.reporter r ORDER BY b.

˓→created DESC";
$query = $entityManager->createQuery($dql);
$query->setMaxResults(30);
$bugs = $query->getResult();
foreach ($bugs as $bug) {

echo $bug->getDescription()." - ".$bug->getCreated()->format('d.m.Y')."\n";
echo " Reported by: ".$bug->getReporter()->getName()."\n";
echo " Assigned to: ".$bug->getEngineer()->getName()."\n";
foreach ($bug->getProducts() as $product) {
echo " Platform: ".$product->getName()."\n";
}
echo "\n";
}
The DQL Query in this example fetches the 30 most recent bugs with their respective engineer and reporter in one
single SQL statement. The console output of this script is then:
Something does not work! - 02.04.2010

Reported by: beberlei
Assigned to: beberlei
Platform: My Product
Note: DQL is not SQL

You may wonder why we start writing SQL at the beginning of this use-case. Don’t we use an ORM to get rid of all
the endless hand-writing of SQL? Doctrine introduces DQL which is best described as object-query-language and
is a dialect of OQL and similar to HQL or JPQL. It does not know the concept of columns and tables, but only those
of Entity-Class and property. Using the Metadata we defined before it allows for very short distinctive and powerful
queries.
An important reason why DQL is favourable to the Query API of most ORMs is its similarity to SQL. The DQL
language allows query constructs that most ORMs don’t: GROUP BY even with HAVING, Sub-selects, Fetch-Joins
of nested classes, mixed results with entities and scalar data such as COUNT() results and much more. Using DQL
you should seldom come to the point where you want to throw your ORM into the dumpster, because it doesn’t support
some the more powerful SQL concepts.
Instead of handwriting DQL you can use the QueryBuilder retrieved by calling
$entityManager->createQueryBuilder(). There are more details about this in the relevant part of
the documentation.
As a last resort you can still use Native SQL and a description of the result set to retrieve entities from the database.
DQL boils down to a Native SQL statement and a ResultSetMapping instance itself. Using Native SQL you could
9.1. Tutorials 35
even use stored procedures for data retrieval, or make use of advanced non-portable database queries like PostgreSql’s
recursive queries.
Array Hydration of the Bug List
In the previous use-case we retrieved the results as their respective object instances. We are not limited to retrieving
objects only from Doctrine however. For a simple list view like the previous one we only need read access to our
entities and can switch the hydration from objects to simple PHP arrays instead.
Hydration can be an expensive process so only retrieving what you need can yield considerable performance benefits
for read-only requests.
Implementing the same list view as before using array hydration we can rewrite our code:
<?php
// list_bugs_array.php
$dql = "SELECT b, e, r, p FROM Bug b JOIN b.engineer e ".

"JOIN b.reporter r JOIN b.products p ORDER BY b.created DESC";
$bugs = $query->getArrayResult();

echo $bug['description'] . " - " . $bug['created']->format('d.m.Y')."\n";
echo " Reported by: ".$bug['reporter']['name']."\n";
echo " Assigned to: ".$bug['engineer']['name']."\n";
foreach ($bug['products'] as $product) {
echo " Platform: ".$product['name']."\n";
}
echo "\n";
}
There is one significant difference in the DQL query however, we have to add an additional fetch-join for the products
connected to a bug. The resulting SQL query for this single select statement is pretty large, however still more efficient
to retrieve compared to hydrating objects.
Find by Primary Key
The next Use-Case is displaying a Bug by primary key. This could be done using DQL as in the previous example with
a where clause, however there is a convenience method on the EntityManager that handles loading by primary
key, which we have already seen in the write scenarios:
<?php
// show_bug.php <id>
$theBugId = $argv[1];
$bug = $entityManager->find("Bug", (int)$theBugId);
echo "Bug: ".$bug->getDescription()."\n";

echo "Engineer: ".$bug->getEngineer()->getName()."\n";

The output of the engineer’s name is fetched from the database! What is happening?
Since we only retrieved the bug by primary key both the engineer and reporter are not immediately loaded from the
database but are replaced by LazyLoading proxies. These proxies will load behind the scenes, when you attempt to
access any of their un-initialized state.
Sample code of this proxy generated code can be found in the specified Proxy Directory, it looks like:
<?php
namespace MyProject\Proxies;
class UserProxyHASH extends User implements GhostObjectInterface

{
// ... generated code
public static function staticProxyConstructor($initializer)

{
}
private function callInitializerHASH($methodName, array $parameters)

{
}

}
The call prints:

$ php show_bug.php 1
Bug: Something does not work!
Engineer: beberlei
Warning: Lazy loading additional data can be very convenient but the additional queries create an overhead. If
you know that certain fields will always (or usually) be required by the query then you will get better performance
by explicitly retrieving them all in the first query.
Dashboard of the User
For the next use-case we want to retrieve the dashboard view, a list of all open bugs the user reported or was assigned
to. This will be achieved using DQL again, this time with some WHERE clauses and usage of bound parameters:
<?php
// dashboard.php <user-id>
$theUserId = $argv[1];
$dql = "SELECT b, e, r FROM Bug b JOIN b.engineer e JOIN b.reporter r ".

"WHERE b.status = 'OPEN' AND (e.id = ?1 OR r.id = ?1) ORDER BY b.created DESC";
$myBugs = $entityManager->createQuery($dql)
->setParameter(1, $theUserId)
->setMaxResults(15)
->getResult();
9.1. Tutorials 37
echo "You have created or assigned to " . count($myBugs) . " open bugs:\n\n";
foreach ($myBugs as $bug) {

echo $bug->getId() . " - " . $bug->getDescription()."\n";
}
Number of Bugs
Until now we only retrieved entities or their array representation. Doctrine also supports the retrieval of non-entities
through DQL. These values are called “scalar result values” and may even be aggregate values using COUNT, SUM,
MIN, MAX or AVG functions.
We will need this knowledge to retrieve the number of open bugs grouped by product:
<?php
// products.php
$dql = "SELECT p.id, p.name, count(b.id) AS openBugs FROM Bug b ".

"JOIN b.products p WHERE b.status = 'OPEN' GROUP BY p.id";
$productBugs = $entityManager->createQuery($dql)->getScalarResult();
foreach ($productBugs as $productBug) {

echo $productBug['name']." has " . $productBug['openBugs'] . " open bugs!\n";
}
Updating Entities
There is a single use-case missing from the requirements, Engineers should be able to close a bug. This looks like:
<?php
// src/Bug.php
class Bug
{
public function close()
{
$this->status = "CLOSE";
}
}
<?php
// close_bug.php <bug-id>
$theBugId = $argv[1];
$bug = $entityManager->find("Bug", (int)$theBugId);

$bug->close();
When retrieving the Bug from the database it is inserted into the IdentityMap inside the UnitOfWork of Doctrine.
This means your Bug with exactly this id can only exist once during the whole request no matter how often you call

EntityManager#find(). It even detects entities that are hydrated using DQL and are already present in the
Identity Map.
When flush is called the EntityManager loops over all the entities in the identity map and performs a comparison
between the values originally retrieved from the database and those values the entity currently has. If at least one of
these properties is different the entity is scheduled for an UPDATE against the database. Only the changed columns
are updated, which offers a pretty good performance improvement compared to updating all the properties.
Entity Repositories
For now we have not discussed how to separate the Doctrine query logic from your model. In Doctrine 1 there was
the concept of Doctrine_Table instances for this separation. The similar concept in Doctrine2 is called Entity
Repositories, integrating the repository pattern at the heart of Doctrine.
Every Entity uses a default repository by default and offers a bunch of convenience methods that you can use to query
for instances of that Entity. Take for example our Product entity. If we wanted to Query by name, we can use:
<?php
$product = $entityManager->getRepository('Product')
->findOneBy(array('name' => $productName));
The method findOneBy() takes an array of fields or association keys and the values to match against.
If you want to find all entities matching a condition you can use findBy(), for example querying for all closed bugs:
<?php
$bugs = $entityManager->getRepository('Bug')
->findBy(array('status' => 'CLOSED'));

// do stuff
}
Compared to DQL these query methods are falling short of functionality very fast. Doctrine offers you a con-
venient way to extend the functionalities of the default EntityRepository and put all the specialized DQL
query logic on it. For this you have to create a subclass of Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository, in our case
a BugRepository and group all the previously discussed query functionality in it:
<?php
// src/BugRepository.php
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
class BugRepository extends EntityRepository

{
public function getRecentBugs($number = 30)
{
$dql = "SELECT b, e, r FROM Bug b JOIN b.engineer e JOIN b.reporter r ORDER
˓→BY b.created DESC";
$query = $this->getEntityManager()->createQuery($dql);
$query->setMaxResults($number);
return $query->getResult();
}
public function getRecentBugsArray($number = 30)

{
$dql = "SELECT b, e, r, p FROM Bug b JOIN b.engineer e ".
9.1. Tutorials 39
"JOIN b.reporter r JOIN b.products p ORDER BY b.created DESC";

$query = $this->getEntityManager()->createQuery($dql);
$query->setMaxResults($number);
return $query->getArrayResult();
}
public function getUsersBugs($userId, $number = 15)

{
$dql = "SELECT b, e, r FROM Bug b JOIN b.engineer e JOIN b.reporter r ".
"WHERE b.status = 'OPEN' AND e.id = ?1 OR r.id = ?1 ORDER BY b.created
˓→DESC";
return $this->getEntityManager()->createQuery($dql)
->setParameter(1, $userId)
->setMaxResults($number)
->getResult();
}
public function getOpenBugsByProduct()

{
$dql = "SELECT p.id, p.name, count(b.id) AS openBugs FROM Bug b ".
"JOIN b.products p WHERE b.status = 'OPEN' GROUP BY p.id";
return $this->getEntityManager()->createQuery($dql)->getScalarResult();
}
}
To be able to use this query logic through $this->getEntityManager()->getRepository('Bug') we

have to adjust the metadata slightly.
• PHP
<?php
/**
* @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="BugRepository")
**/
class Bug
{
//...
}
• XML
˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Bug" table="bugs" repository-class="BugRepository">
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Now we can remove our query logic in all the places and instead use them through the EntityRepository. As an

example here is the code of the first use case “List of Bugs”:
<?php
// list_bugs_repository.php
$bugs = $entityManager->getRepository('Bug')->getRecentBugs();

echo $bug->getDescription()." - ".$bug->getCreated()->format('d.m.Y')."\n";
echo " Reported by: ".$bug->getReporter()->getName()."\n";
echo " Assigned to: ".$bug->getEngineer()->getName()."\n";
foreach ($bug->getProducts() as $product) {
echo " Platform: ".$product->getName()."\n";
}
echo "\n";
}
Using EntityRepositories you can avoid coupling your model with specific query logic. You can also re-use query
logic easily throughout your application.
The method count() takes an array of fields or association keys and the values to match against. This provides you
with a convenient and lightweight way to count a resultset when you don’t need to deal with it:
<?php
$productCount = $entityManager->getRepository(Product::class)
->count(['name' => $productName]);
Conclusion
This tutorial is over here, I hope you had fun. Additional content will be added to this tutorial incrementally, topics
will include:
• More on Association Mappings
• Lifecycle Events triggered in the UnitOfWork
• Ordering of Collections
Additional details on all the topics discussed here can be found in the respective manual chapters.
9.1.2 Getting Started: Database First
Note: Development Workflows

When you Code First, you start with developing Objects and then map them onto your database. When you Model
First, you are modelling your application using tools (for example UML) and generate database schema and PHP code
from this model. When you have a Database First, you already have a database schema and generate the corresponding
PHP code from it.
Note: This getting started guide is in development.
Development of new applications often starts with an existing database schema. When the database schema is the
starting point for your application, then development is said to use the Database First approach to Doctrine.
9.1. Tutorials 41
In this workflow you would modify the database schema first and then regenerate the PHP code to use with this schema.
You need a flexible code-generator for this task and up to Doctrine 2.2, the code generator hasn’t been flexible enough
to achieve this.
We spinned off a subproject, Doctrine CodeGenerator, that will fill this gap and allow you to do Database First
development.
9.1.3 Getting Started: Model First
Note: Development Workflows

When you Code First, you start with developing Objects and then map them onto your database. When you Model
First, you are modelling your application using tools (for example UML) and generate database schema and PHP
code from this model. When you have a Database First, then you already have a database schema and generate the
corresponding PHP code from it.
Note: This getting started guide is in development.
There are applications when you start with a high-level description of the model using modelling tools such as UML.
Modelling tools could also be Excel, XML or CSV files that describe the model in some structured way. If your
application is using a modelling tool, then the development workflow is said to be a Model First approach to Doctrine2.
In this workflow you always change the model description and then regenerate both PHP code and database schema
from this model.
9.1.4 Working with Indexed Associations
Note: This feature is available from version 2.1 of Doctrine.
Doctrine 2 collections are modelled after PHPs native arrays. PHP arrays are an ordered hashmap, but in the first
version of Doctrine keys retrieved from the database were always numerical unless INDEX BY was used. Starting
with Doctrine 2.1 you can index your collections by a value in the related entity. This is a first step towards full
ordered hashmap support through the Doctrine ORM. The feature works like an implicit INDEX BY for the selected
association but has several downsides also:
• You have to manage both the key and field if you want to change the index by field value.
• On each request the keys are regenerated from the field value, and not from the previous collection key.
• Values of the Index-By keys are never considered during persistence. They only exist for accessing purposes.
• Fields that are used for the index by feature HAVE to be unique in the database. The behavior for multiple
entities with the same index-by field value is undefined.
As an example we will design a simple stock exchange list view. The domain consists of the entity Stock and
Market where each Stock has a symbol and is traded on a single market. Instead of having a numerical list of stocks
traded on a market they will be indexed by their symbol, which is unique across all markets.
Mapping Indexed Associations
You can map indexed associations by adding:

• indexBy attribute to any @OneToMany or @ManyToMany annotation.

• index-by attribute to any <one-to-many /> or <many-to-many /> xml element.
The code and mappings for the Market entity looks like this:
• PHP
<?php
namespace Doctrine\Tests\Models\StockExchange;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="exchange_markets")
*/
class Market
{
/**
* @var int
*/
private $id;
/**
* @var string
*/
private $name;
/**
* @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Stock", mappedBy="market", indexBy="symbol")
* @var Stock[]
*/
private $stocks;
public function __construct($name)

{
$this->stocks = new ArrayCollection();
}

{
return $this->id;
}

{
return $this->name;
}
public function addStock(Stock $stock)

{
$this->stocks[$stock->getSymbol()] = $stock;
}
public function getStock($symbol)
9.1. Tutorials 43
{
if (!isset($this->stocks[$symbol])) {
throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Symbol is not traded on this
˓→market.");
return $this->stocks[$symbol];
}
public function getStocks()

{
return $this->stocks->toArray();
}
}
• XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

http://www.doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-
˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Doctrine\Tests\Models\StockExchange\Market">
</id>
<field name="name" type="string"/>
<one-to-many target-entity="Stock" mapped-by="market" field="stocks"

index-by="symbol" />
˓→
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Inside the addStock() method you can see how we directly set the key of the association to the symbol, so that
we can work with the indexed association directly after invoking addStock(). Inside getStock($symbol) we
pick a stock traded on the particular market by symbol. If this stock doesn’t exist an exception is thrown.
The Stock entity doesn’t contain any special instructions that are new, but for completeness here are the code and
mappings for it:
• PHP
<?php
namespace Doctrine\Tests\Models\StockExchange;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="exchange_stocks")
*/
class Stock
{
/**


* @var int
*/
private $id;
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="string", unique=true)
*/
private $symbol;
/**
* @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Market", inversedBy="stocks")
* @var Market
*/
private $market;
public function __construct($symbol, Market $market)

{
$this->symbol = $symbol;
$this->market = $market;
$market->addStock($this);
}
public function getSymbol()

{
return $this->symbol;
}
}
• XML
˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Doctrine\Tests\Models\StockExchange\Stock">
</id>
<field name="symbol" type="string" unique="true" />

<many-to-one target-entity="Market" field="market" inversed-by="stocks" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Querying indexed associations
Now that we defined the stocks collection to be indexed by symbol, we can take a look at some code that makes use
of the indexing.
First we will populate our database with two example stocks traded on a single market:
<?php
// $em is the EntityManager
9.1. Tutorials 45
$market = new Market("Some Exchange");

$stock1 = new Stock("AAPL", $market);
$stock2 = new Stock("GOOG", $market);
$em->persist($market);
$em->persist($stock1);
$em->persist($stock2);
$em->flush();
This code is not particular interesting since the indexing feature is not yet used. In a new request we could now query
for the market:
<?php
$marketId = 1;
$symbol = "AAPL";
$market = $em->find("Doctrine\Tests\Models\StockExchange\Market", $marketId);
// Access the stocks by symbol now:

$stock = $market->getStock($symbol);
echo $stock->getSymbol(); // will print "AAPL"
The implementation of Market::addStock(), in combination with indexBy, allows us to access the collection
consistently by the Stock symbol. It does not matter if Stock is managed by Doctrine or not.
The same applies to DQL queries: The indexBy configuration acts as implicit “INDEX BY” to a join association.
<?php
$marketId = 1;
$symbol = "AAPL";
$dql = "SELECT m, s FROM Doctrine\Tests\Models\StockExchange\Market m JOIN m.stocks s

˓→WHERE m.id = ?1";
$market = $em->createQuery($dql)
->setParameter(1, $marketId)
->getSingleResult();
// Access the stocks by symbol now:

$stock = $market->getStock($symbol);
echo $stock->getSymbol(); // will print "AAPL"
If you want to use INDEX BY explicitly on an indexed association you are free to do so. Additionally, indexed
associations also work with the Collection::slice() functionality, even if the association’s fetch mode is
LAZY or EXTRA_LAZY.
Outlook into the Future
For the inverse side of a many-to-many associations there will be a way to persist the keys and the order as a third
and fourth parameter into the join table. This feature is discussed in DDC-213 This feature cannot be implemented for
one-to-many associations, because they are never the owning side.

9.1.5 Extra Lazy Associations
New in version 2.1.

In many cases associations between entities can get pretty large. Even in a simple scenario like a blog. where posts can
be commented, you always have to assume that a post draws hundreds of comments. In Doctrine 2.0 if you accessed an
association it would always get loaded completely into memory. This can lead to pretty serious performance problems,
if your associations contain several hundreds or thousands of entities.
With Doctrine 2.1 a feature called Extra Lazy is introduced for associations. Associations are marked as Lazy by
default, which means the whole collection object for an association is populated the first time its accessed. If you mark
an association as extra lazy the following methods on collections can be called without triggering a full load of the
collection:
• Collection#contains($entity)
• Collection#containsKey($key) (available with Doctrine 2.5)
• Collection#count()
• Collection#get($key) (available with Doctrine 2.4)
• Collection#slice($offset, $length = null)
For each of the above methods the following semantics apply:
• For each call, if the Collection is not yet loaded, issue a straight SELECT statement against the database.
• For each call, if the collection is already loaded, fallback to the default functionality for lazy collections. No
additional SELECT statements are executed.
Additionally even with Doctrine 2.0 the following methods do not trigger the collection load:
• Collection#add($entity)
• Collection#offsetSet($key, $entity) - ArrayAccess with no specific key $coll[] =
$entity, it does not work when setting specific keys like $coll[0] = $entity.
With extra lazy collections you can now not only add entities to large collections but also paginate them easily using
a combination of count and slice.
Enabling Extra-Lazy Associations
The mapping configuration is simple. Instead of using the default value of fetch="LAZY" you have to switch to
extra lazy as shown in these examples:
• PHP
<?php
namespace Doctrine\Tests\Models\CMS;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class CmsGroup
{
/**
* @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="CmsUser", mappedBy="groups", fetch="EXTRA_
˓→LAZY")
9.1. Tutorials 47
*/
public $users;
}
• XML
˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Doctrine\Tests\Models\CMS\CmsGroup">

<many-to-many field="users" target-entity="CmsUser" mapped-by="groups"
˓→fetch="EXTRA_LAZY" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
9.1.6 Composite and Foreign Keys as Primary Key
New in version 2.1.

Doctrine 2 supports composite primary keys natively. Composite keys are a very powerful relational database concept
and we took good care to make sure Doctrine 2 supports as many of the composite primary key use-cases. For
Doctrine 2.0 composite keys of primitive data-types are supported, for Doctrine 2.1 even foreign keys as primary keys
are supported.
This tutorial shows how the semantics of composite primary keys work and how they map to the database.
General Considerations
Every entity with a composite key cannot use an id generator other than “NONE”. That means the ID fields have to
have their values set before you call EntityManager#persist($entity).
Primitive Types only
Even in version 2.0 you can have composite keys as long as they only consist of the primitive types integer and
string. Suppose you want to create a database of cars and use the model-name and year of production as primary
keys:
• PHP
<?php
namespace VehicleCatalogue\Model;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Car
{

/** @ORM\Id @ORM\Column(type="string") */

private $name;
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\Column(type="integer") */
private $year;
public function __construct($name, $year)

{
$this->year = $year;
}
public function getModelName()

{
return $this->name;
}
public function getYearOfProduction()

{
return $this->year;
}
}
• XML
˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="VehicleCatalogue\Model\Car">
<id field="name" type="string" />
<id field="year" type="integer" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Now you can use this entity:

<?php
$car = new Car("Audi A8", 2010);

$em->persist($car);
$em->flush();
And for querying you can use arrays to both DQL and EntityRepositories:
<?php

$audi = $em->find("VehicleCatalogue\Model\Car", array("name" => "Audi A8", "year" =>
˓→2010));
$dql = "SELECT c FROM VehicleCatalogue\Model\Car c WHERE c.id = ?1";
9.1. Tutorials 49
$audi = $em->createQuery($dql)
->setParameter(1, array("name" => "Audi A8", "year" => 2010))
->getSingleResult();
You can also use this entity in associations. Doctrine will then generate two foreign keys one for name and to year
to the related entities.
Note: This example shows how you can nicely solve the requirement for existing values before
EntityManager#persist(): By adding them as mandatory values for the constructor.
Identity through foreign Entities
Note: Identity through foreign entities is only supported with Doctrine 2.1
There are tons of use-cases where the identity of an Entity should be determined by the entity of one or many parent
entities.
• Dynamic Attributes of an Entity (for example Article). Each Article has many attributes with primary key
“article_id” and “attribute_name”.
• Address object of a Person, the primary key of the address is “user_id”. This is not a case of a composite primary
key, but the identity is derived through a foreign entity and a foreign key.
• Join Tables with metadata can be modelled as Entity, for example connections between two articles with a little
description and a score.
The semantics of mapping identity through foreign entities are easy:
• Only allowed on Many-To-One or One-To-One associations.
• Plug an @ORM\Id annotation onto every association.
• Set an attribute association-key with the field name of the association in XML.
Use-Case 1: Dynamic Attributes
We keep up the example of an Article with arbitrary attributes, the mapping looks like this:
• PHP
<?php
namespace Application\Model;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Article
{
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\Column(type="integer") @ORM\GeneratedValue */
private $id;

/** @ORM\Column(type="string") */
private $title;
/**
* @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="ArticleAttribute", mappedBy="article",
˓→cascade={"ALL"}, indexBy="attribute")
*/
private $attributes;
public function addAttribute($name, $value)

{
$this->attributes[$name] = new ArticleAttribute($name, $value, $this);
}
}
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class ArticleAttribute
{
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Article", inversedBy="attributes") */
private $article;

private $attribute;
private $value;
public function __construct($name, $value, $article)

{
$this->attribute = $name;
$this->value = $value;
$this->article = $article;
}
}
• XML
http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Application\Model\ArticleAttribute">
<id name="article" association-key="true" />
<id name="attribute" type="string" />
<field name="value" type="string" />
<many-to-one field="article" target-entity="Article" inversed-by=

˓→ "attributes" />
<entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
9.1. Tutorials 51
Use-Case 2: Simple Derived Identity
Sometimes you have the requirement that two objects are related by a One-To-One association and that the dependent
class should re-use the primary key of the class it depends on. One good example for this is a user-address relationship:
• PHP
<?php
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class User
{
private $id;
}
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Address
{
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="User") */
private $user;
}
Use-Case 3: Join-Table with Metadata
In the classic order product shop example there is the concept of the order item which contains references to order and
product and additional data such as the amount of products purchased and maybe even the current price.
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class Order
{
private $id;
/** @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Customer") */
private $customer;
/** @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="OrderItem", mappedBy="order") */

private $items;
/** @ORM\Column(type="boolean") */
private $payed = false;
/** @ORM\Column(type="boolean") */
private $shipped = false;
/** @ORM\Column(type="datetime") */

private $created;
public function __construct(Customer $customer)

{
$this->customer = $customer;
$this->items = new ArrayCollection();
$this->created = new \DateTime("now");
}
}
/** @ORM\Entity */
class Product
{
private $id;
private $name;
/** @ORM\Column(type="decimal") */
private $currentPrice;
public function getCurrentPrice()

{
return $this->currentPrice;
}
}
/** @ORM\Entity */
class OrderItem
{
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Order") */
private $order;
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Product") */

private $product;
/** @ORM\Column(type="integer") */
private $amount = 1;
/** @ORM\Column(type="decimal") */
private $offeredPrice;
public function __construct(Order $order, Product $product, $amount = 1)

{
$this->order = $order;
$this->product = $product;
$this->offeredPrice = $product->getCurrentPrice();
}
}
Performance Considerations
Using composite keys always comes with a performance hit compared to using entities with a simple surrogate key.
This performance impact is mostly due to additional PHP code that is necessary to handle this kind of keys, most
notably when using derived identifiers.
9.1. Tutorials 53
On the SQL side there is not much overhead as no additional or unexpected queries have to be executed to manage
entities with derived foreign keys.
9.1.7 Ordering To-Many Associations
There are use-cases when you’ll want to sort collections when they are retrieved from the database. In userland you
do this as long as you haven’t initially saved an entity with its associations into the database. To retrieve a sorted
collection from the database you can use the @ORM\OrderBy annotation with an collection that specifies an DQL
snippet that is appended to all queries with this collection.
Additional to any @ORM\OneToMany or @ORM\ManyToMany annotation you can specify the @ORM\OrderBy in
the following way:
• PHP
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity **/

class User
{
// ...
/**
* @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Group")
* @ORM\OrderBy({"name" = "ASC"})
**/
private $groups;
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="User">
<many-to-many field="groups" target-entity="Group">
<order-by>
<order-by-field name="name" direction="ASC" />
</order-by>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
The DQL Snippet in OrderBy is only allowed to consist of unqualified, unquoted field names and of an optional
ASC/DESC positional statement. Multiple Fields are separated by a comma (,). The referenced field names have to
exist on the targetEntity class of the @ORM\ManyToMany or @ORM\OneToMany annotation.
The semantics of this feature can be described as follows.
• @ORM\OrderBy acts as an implicit ORDER BY clause for the given fields, that is appended to all the explicitly
given ORDER BY items.
• All collections of the ordered type are always retrieved in an ordered fashion.
• To keep the database impact low, these implicit ORDER BY items are only added to an DQL Query if the
collection is fetch joined in the DQL query.
Given our previously defined example, the following would not add ORDER BY, since g is not fetch joined:

SELECT u FROM User u JOIN u.groups g WHERE SIZE(g) > 10
However the following:
SELECT u, g FROM User u JOIN u.groups g WHERE u.id = 10
. . . would internally be rewritten to:
SELECT u, g FROM User u JOIN u.groups g WHERE u.id = 10 ORDER BY g.name ASC
You can reverse the order with an explicit DQL ORDER BY:
SELECT u, g FROM User u JOIN u.groups g WHERE u.id = 10 ORDER BY g.name DESC
. . . is internally rewritten to:
SELECT u, g FROM User u JOIN u.groups g WHERE u.id = 10 ORDER BY g.name DESC, g.name
˓→ASC
9.1.8 Override Field Association Mappings In Subclasses
Sometimes there is a need to persist entities but override all or part of the mapping metadata. Sometimes also the
mapping to override comes from entities using traits where the traits have mapping metadata. This tutorial explains
how to override mapping metadata, i.e. attributes and associations metadata in particular. The example here shows the
overriding of a class that uses a trait but is similar when extending a base class as shown at the end of this tutorial.
Suppose we have a class ExampleEntityWithOverride. This class uses trait ExampleTrait:
<?php
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*
* @ORM\AttributeOverrides({
* @ORM\AttributeOverride(name="foo",
* column=@ORM\Column(
* name = "foo_overridden",
* type = "integer",
* length = 140,
* nullable = false,
* unique = false
* )
* )
* })
*
* @ORM\AssociationOverrides({
* @ORM\AssociationOverride(name="bar",
* joinColumns=@ORM\JoinColumn(
* name="example_entity_overridden_bar_id", referencedColumnName="id"
* )
* )
* })
*/
class ExampleEntityWithOverride
9.1. Tutorials 55
{
use ExampleTrait;
}
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Bar
{
private $id;
}
The docblock is showing metadata override of the attribute and association type. It basically changes the names of the
columns mapped for a property foo and for the association bar which relates to Bar class shown above. Here is the
trait which has mapping metadata that is overridden by the annotation above:
<?php
/**
* Trait class
*/
trait ExampleTrait
{
private $id;
/**
* @ORM\Column(name="trait_foo", type="integer", length=100, nullable=true,
˓→unique=true)
*/
protected $foo;
/**
* @ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="Bar", cascade={"persist", "refresh"})
* @ORM\JoinColumn(name="example_trait_bar_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
protected $bar;
}
The case for just extending a class would be just the same but:
<?php
class ExampleEntityWithOverride extends BaseEntityWithSomeMapping
{
// ...
}
Overriding is also supported via XML (examples).
9.1.9 Pagination
New in version 2.2.

Starting with version 2.2 Doctrine ships with a Paginator for DQL queries. It has a very simple API and implements
the SPL interfaces Countable and IteratorAggregate.
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Pagination\Paginator;
$dql = "SELECT p, c FROM BlogPost p JOIN p.comments c";

$query = $entityManager->createQuery($dql)
->setFirstResult(0)
->setMaxResults(100);
$paginator = new Paginator($query, $fetchJoinCollection = true);
$c = count($paginator);
foreach ($paginator as $post) {
echo $post->getHeadline() . "\n";
}
Paginating Doctrine queries is not as simple as you might think in the beginning. If you have complex fetch-join
scenarios with one-to-many or many-to-many associations using the “default” LIMIT functionality of database vendors
is not sufficient to get the correct results.
By default the pagination extension does the following steps to compute the correct result:
• Perform a Count query using DISTINCT keyword.
• Perform a Limit Subquery with DISTINCT to find all ids of the entity in from on the current page.
• Perform a WHERE IN query to get all results for the current page.
This behavior is only necessary if you actually fetch join a to-many collection. You can disable this behavior by setting
the $fetchJoinCollection flag to false; in that case only 2 instead of the 3 queries described are executed.
We hope to automate the detection for this in the future.
9.1.10 Separating Concerns using Embeddables
Embeddables are classes which are not entities themselves, but are embedded in entities and can also be queried in
DQL. You’ll mostly want to use them to reduce duplication or separating concerns. Value objects such as date range
or address are the primary use case for this feature.
Note: Embeddables can only contain properties with basic @Column mapping.
For the purposes of this tutorial, we will assume that you have a User class in your application and you would like to
store an address in the User class. We will model the Address class as an embeddable instead of simply adding the
respective columns to the User class.
• PHP
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class User
{
/** @ORM\Embedded(class = "Address") */
private $address;
9.1. Tutorials 57
/** @ORM\Embeddable */
class Address
{
/** @ORM\Column(type = "string") */
private $street;

private $postalCode;

private $city;

private $country;
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<embedded name="address" class="Address" />
</entity>
<embeddable name="Address">
<field name="street" type="string" />
<field name="postalCode" type="string" />
<field name="city" type="string" />
<field name="country" type="string" />
</embeddable>
</doctrine-mapping>
In terms of your database schema, Doctrine will automatically inline all columns from the Address class into the
table of the User class, just as if you had declared them directly there.
9.1.11 Initializing embeddables
In case all fields in the embeddable are nullable, you might want to initialize the embeddable, to avoid getting a
null value instead of the embedded object.

{
$this->address = new Address();
}
9.1.12 Column Prefixing
By default, Doctrine names your columns by prefixing them, using the value object name.
Following the example above, your columns would be named as address_street, address_postalCode. . .
You can change this behaviour to meet your needs by changing the columnPrefix attribute in the @Embedded
notation.
The following example shows you how to set your prefix to myPrefix_:

• PHP
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class User
{
/** @ORM\Embedded(class = "Address", columnPrefix = "myPrefix_") */
private $address;
}
• XML
<embedded name="address" class="Address" column-prefix="myPrefix_" />
</entity>
To have Doctrine drop the prefix and use the value object’s property name directly, set columnPrefix=false
(use-column-prefix="false" for XML):
• PHP
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class User
{
/** @ORM\Embedded(class = "Address", columnPrefix = false) */
private $address;
}
• XML
<embedded name="address" class="Address" use-column-prefix="false" />
</entity>
9.1.13 DQL
You can also use mapped fields of embedded classes in DQL queries, just as if they were declared in the User class:
SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.address.city = :myCity
9.2 Reference Guide
9.2.1 Architecture
This chapter gives an overview of the overall architecture, terminology and constraints of Doctrine 2. It is recom-
mended to read this chapter carefully.
9.2. Reference Guide 59

Using an Object-Relational Mapper
As the term ORM already hints at, Doctrine 2 aims to simplify the translation between database rows and the PHP ob-
ject model. The primary use case for Doctrine are therefore applications that utilize the Object-Oriented Programming
Paradigm. For applications that do not primarily work with objects Doctrine 2 is not suited very well.
Requirements
Doctrine 2 requires a minimum of PHP 5.4. For greatly improved performance it is also recommended that you use
APC with PHP.
Doctrine 2 Packages
Doctrine 2 is divided into three main packages.

• Common
• DBAL (includes Common)
• ORM (includes DBAL+Common)
This manual mainly covers the ORM package, sometimes touching parts of the underlying DBAL and Common
packages. The Doctrine code base is split in to these packages for a few reasons and they are to. . .
• . . . make things more maintainable and decoupled
• . . . allow you to use the code in Doctrine Common without the ORM or DBAL
• . . . allow you to use the DBAL without the ORM
The Common Package
The Common package contains highly reusable components that have no dependencies beyond the package itself (and
PHP, of course). The root namespace of the Common package is Doctrine\Common.
The DBAL Package
The DBAL package contains an enhanced database abstraction layer on top of PDO but is not strongly bound to PDO.
The purpose of this layer is to provide a single API that bridges most of the differences between the different RDBMS
vendors. The root namespace of the DBAL package is Doctrine\DBAL.
The ORM Package
The ORM package contains the object-relational mapping toolkit that provides transparent relational persistence for
plain PHP objects. The root namespace of the ORM package is Doctrine\ORM.
Terminology
Entities
An entity is a lightweight, persistent domain object. An entity can be any regular PHP class observing the following
restrictions:

• An entity class must not be final or contain final methods.

• All persistent properties/field of any entity class should always be private or protected, otherwise lazy-loading
might not work as expected. In case you serialize entities (for example Session) properties should be protected
(See Serialize section below).
• Any two entity classes in a class hierarchy that inherit directly or indirectly from one another must not have a
mapped property with the same name. That is, if B inherits from A then B must not have a mapped field with
the same name as an already mapped field that is inherited from A.
Entities support inheritance, polymorphic associations, and polymorphic queries. Both abstract and concrete classes
can be entities. Entities may extend non-entity classes as well as entity classes, and non-entity classes may extend
entity classes.
Note: The constructor of an entity is only ever invoked when you construct a new instance with the new keyword.
Doctrine never calls entity constructors, thus you are free to use them as you wish and even have it require arguments
of any type.
Entity states
An entity instance can be characterized as being NEW, MANAGED, DETACHED or REMOVED.

• A NEW entity instance has no persistent identity, and is not yet associated with an EntityManager and a UnitOf-
Work (i.e. those just created with the “new” operator).
• A MANAGED entity instance is an instance with a persistent identity that is associated with an EntityManager
and whose persistence is thus managed.
• A DETACHED entity instance is an instance with a persistent identity that is not (or no longer) associated with
an EntityManager and a UnitOfWork.
• A REMOVED entity instance is an instance with a persistent identity, associated with an EntityManager, that
will be removed from the database upon transaction commit.
Persistent fields
The persistent state of an entity is represented by instance variables. An instance variable must be directly accessed
only from within the methods of the entity by the entity instance itself. Instance variables must not be accessed by
clients of the entity. The state of the entity is available to clients only through the entity’s methods, i.e. accessor
methods (getter/setter methods) or other business methods.
Collection-valued persistent fields and properties must be defined in terms of the
Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection interface. The collection implementation type may be
used by the application to initialize fields or properties before the entity is made persistent. Once the entity becomes
managed (or detached), subsequent access must be through the interface type.
Serializing entities
Serializing entities is generally to be avoided.

If you intend to serialize (and unserialize) entity instances that still hold references to proxy objects you may run
into problems, because all proxy properties will be initialized recursively, leading to large serialized object graphs,
especially for circular associations.

If you really must serialize entities, regardless if proxies are involved or not, then consider implementing the
Serializable interface and manually checking for cyclic dependencies in your object graph.
The EntityManager
The EntityManager class is a central access point to the ORM functionality provided by Doctrine 2. The
EntityManager API is used to manage the persistence of your objects and to query for persistent objects.
Transactional write-behind
An EntityManager and the underlying UnitOfWork employ a strategy called “transactional write-behind” that
delays the execution of SQL statements in order to execute them in the most efficient way and to execute them at the
end of a transaction so that all write locks are quickly released. You should see Doctrine as a tool to synchronize your
in-memory objects with the database in well defined units of work. Work with your objects and modify them as usual
and when you’re done call EntityManager#flush() to make your changes persistent.
The Unit of Work
Internally an EntityManager uses a UnitOfWork, which is a typical implementation of the Unit of Work pattern,
to keep track of all the things that need to be done the next time flush is invoked. You usually do not directly interact
with a UnitOfWork but with the EntityManager instead.
9.2.2 Installation and Configuration
Doctrine can be installed with Composer. For older versions we still have PEAR packages.
Define the following requirement in your composer.json file:
{
"require": {
"doctrine/orm": "*"
}
}
Then call composer install from your command line. If you don’t know how Composer works, check out their
Getting Started to set up.
Class loading
Autoloading is taken care of by Composer. You just have to include the composer autoload file in your project:
<?php
// bootstrap.php
// Include Composer Autoload (relative to project root).
Obtaining an EntityManager
Once you have prepared the class loading, you acquire an EntityManager instance. The EntityManager class is the
primary access point to ORM functionality provided by Doctrine.

<?php
// bootstrap.php
use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Setup;
$paths = array("/path/to/entity-files");
$isDevMode = false;
// the connection configuration

$dbParams = array(
'driver' => 'pdo_mysql',
'user' => 'root',
'password' => '',
'dbname' => 'foo',
);
$config = Setup::createAnnotationMetadataConfiguration($paths, $isDevMode);

$entityManager = EntityManager::create($dbParams, $config);
Or if you prefer XML:
<?php
$paths = array("/path/to/xml-mappings");
$config = Setup::createXMLMetadataConfiguration($paths, $isDevMode);
$entityManager = EntityManager::create($dbParams, $config);
Inside the Setup methods several assumptions are made:

• If $isDevMode is true caching is done in memory with the ArrayCache. Proxy objects are recreated on every
request.
• If $isDevMode is false, check for Caches in the order APC, Xcache, Memcache (127.0.0.1:11211), Redis
(127.0.0.1:6379) unless $cache is passed as fourth argument.
• If $isDevMode is false, set then proxy classes have to be explicitly created through the command line.
• If third argument $proxyDir is not set, use the systems temporary directory.
If you want to configure Doctrine in more detail, take a look at the Advanced Configuration section.
Note: You can learn more about the database connection configuration in the Doctrine DBAL connection configura-
tion reference.
Setting up the Commandline Tool
Doctrine ships with a number of command line tools that are very helpful during development. You can call this
command from the Composer binary directory:
$ php vendor/bin/doctrine
You need to register your applications EntityManager to the console tool to make use of the tasks by creating a
cli-config.php file with the following content:
On Doctrine 2.4 and above:

<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Console\ConsoleRunner;
// replace with file to your own project bootstrap

require_once 'bootstrap.php';
// replace with mechanism to retrieve EntityManager in your app

$entityManager = GetEntityManager();
return ConsoleRunner::createHelperSet($entityManager);
On Doctrine 2.3 and below:
<?php
// cli-config.php
require_once 'my_bootstrap.php';
// Any way to access the EntityManager from your application

$em = GetMyEntityManager();
$helperSet = new \Symfony\Component\Console\Helper\HelperSet(array(

'db' => new \Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\Console\Helper\ConnectionHelper($em->
˓→getConnection()),
'em' => new \Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Console\Helper\EntityManagerHelper($em)

));
9.2.3 Frequently Asked Questions
Note: This FAQ is a work in progress. We will add lots of questions and not answer them right away just to remember
what is often asked. If you stumble across an unanswered question please write a mail to the mailing-list or join the
#doctrine channel on Freenode IRC.
Database Schema
How do I set the charset and collation for MySQL tables?
You can’t set these values inside the annotations or xml mapping files. To make a database work with the default
charset and collation you should configure MySQL to use it as default charset, or create the database with charset and
collation details. This way they get inherited to all newly created database tables and columns.
Entity Classes
How can I add default values to a column?
Doctrine does not support to set the default values in columns through the “DEFAULT” keyword in SQL. This is not
necessary however, you can just use your class properties as default values. These are then used upon insert:
class User
{
const STATUS_DISABLED = 0;

const STATUS_ENABLED = 1;
private $algorithm = "sha1";

private $status = self:STATUS_DISABLED;
}
Mapping
Why do I get exceptions about unique constraint failures during $em->flush()?
Doctrine does not check if you are re-adding entities with a primary key that already exists or adding entities to a
collection twice. You have to check for both conditions yourself in the code before calling $em->flush() if you
know that unique constraint failures can occur.
In Symfony2 for example there is a Unique Entity Validator to achieve this task.
For collections you can check with $collection->contains($entity) if an entity is already part of this
collection. For a FETCH=LAZY collection this will initialize the collection, however for FETCH=EXTRA_LAZY
this method will use SQL to determine if this entity is already part of the collection.
Associations
What is wrong when I get an InvalidArgumentException “A new entity was found through the rela-
tionship..”?
This exception is thrown during EntityManager#flush() when there exists an object in the identity map that
contains a reference to an object that Doctrine does not know about. Say for example you grab a “User”-entity
from the database with a specific id and set a completely new object into one of the associations of the User ob-
ject. If you then call EntityManager#flush() without letting Doctrine know about this new object using
EntityManager#persist($newObject) you will see this exception.
You can solve this exception by:
• Calling EntityManager#persist($newObject) on the new object
• Using cascade=persist on the association that contains the new object
How can I filter an association?
Natively you can’t filter associations in 2.0 and 2.1. You should use DQL queries to query for the filtered set of entities.
I call clear() on a One-To-Many collection but the entities are not deleted
This is an expected behavior that has to do with the inverse/owning side handling of Doctrine. By definition a One-
To-Many association is on the inverse side, that means changes to it will not be recognized by Doctrine.
If you want to perform the equivalent of the clear operation you have to iterate the collection and set the owning side
many-to-one reference to NULL as well to detach all entities from the collection. This will trigger the appropriate
UPDATE statements on the database.

How can I add columns to a many-to-many table?
The many-to-many association is only supporting foreign keys in the table definition To work with many-to-many
tables containing extra columns you have to use the foreign keys as primary keys feature of Doctrine introduced in
version 2.1.
See the tutorial on composite primary keys for more information.
How can i paginate fetch-joined collections?
If you are issuing a DQL statement that fetches a collection as well you cannot easily iterate over this collection using
a LIMIT statement (or vendor equivalent).
Doctrine does not offer a solution for this out of the box but there are several extensions that do:
• DoctrineExtensions
• Pagerfanta
Why does pagination not work correctly with fetch joins?
Pagination in Doctrine uses a LIMIT clause (or vendor equivalent) to restrict the results. However when fetch-joining
this is not returning the correct number of results since joining with a one-to-many or many-to-many association
multiplies the number of rows by the number of associated entities.
See the previous question for a solution to this task.
Inheritance
Can I use Inheritance with Doctrine 2?
Yes, you can use Single- or Joined-Table Inheritance in Doctrine 2.

See the documentation chapter on inheritance mapping for the details.
Why does Doctrine not create proxy objects for my inheritance hierarchy?
If you set a many-to-one or one-to-one association target-entity to any parent class of an inheritance hierarchy Doctrine
does not know what PHP class the foreign is actually of. To find this out it has to execute a SQL query to look this
information up in the database.
Performance
Why is an extra SQL query executed every time I fetch an entity with a one-to-one relation?
If Doctrine detects that you are fetching an inverse side one-to-one association it has to execute an additional query to
load this object, because it cannot know if there is no such object (setting null) or if it should set a proxy and which id
this proxy has.
To solve this problem currently a query has to be executed to find out this information.

Doctrine Query Language
What is DQL?
DQL stands for Doctrine Query Language, a query language that very much looks like SQL but has some important
benefits when using Doctrine:
• It uses class names and fields instead of tables and columns, separating concerns between backend and your
object model.
• It utilizes the metadata defined to offer a range of shortcuts when writing. For example you do not have to
specify the ON clause of joins, since Doctrine already knows about them.
• It adds some functionality that is related to object management and transforms them into SQL.
It also has some drawbacks of course:
• The syntax is slightly different to SQL so you have to learn and remember the differences.
• To be vendor independent it can only implement a subset of all the existing SQL dialects. Vendor specific
functionality and optimizations cannot be used through DQL unless implemented by you explicitly.
• For some DQL constructs subselects are used which are known to be slow in MySQL.
Can I sort by a function (for example ORDER BY RAND()) in DQL?
No, it is not supported to sort by function in DQL. If you need this functionality you should either use a native-query
or come up with another solution. As a side note: Sorting with ORDER BY RAND() is painfully slow starting with
1000 rows.
A Query fails, how can I debug it?
First, if you are using the QueryBuilder you can use $queryBuilder->getDQL() to get the DQL string of this
query. The corresponding SQL you can get from the Query instance by calling $query->getSQL().
<?php
$dql = "SELECT u FROM User u";
var_dump($query->getSQL());
$qb = $entityManager->createQueryBuilder();
$qb->select('u')->from('User', 'u');
var_dump($qb->getDQL());
9.2.4 Basic Mapping
This guide explains the basic mapping of entities and properties. After working through this guide you should know:
• How to create PHP objects that can be saved to the database with Doctrine;
• How to configure the mapping between columns on tables and properties on entities;
• What Doctrine mapping types are;
• Defining primary keys and how identifiers are generated by Doctrine;
• How quoting of reserved symbols works in Doctrine.

Mapping of associations will be covered in the next chapter on Association Mapping.
Guide Assumptions
You should have already installed and configure Doctrine.
Creating Classes for the Database
Every PHP object that you want to save in the database using Doctrine is called an “Entity”. The term “Entity”
describes objects that have an identity over many independent requests. This identity is usually achieved by assigning
a unique identifier to an entity. In this tutorial the following Message PHP class will serve as the example Entity:
<?php
class Message
{
private $id;
private $text;
private $postedAt;
}
Because Doctrine is a generic library, it only knows about your entities because you will describe their existence and
structure using mapping metadata, which is configuration that tells Doctrine how your entity should be stored in the
database. The documentation will often speak of “mapping something”, which means writing the mapping metadata
that describes your entity.
Doctrine provides several different ways to specify object-relational mapping metadata:
• Docblock Annotations
• XML
• PHP code
This manual will usually show mapping metadata via docblock annotations, though many examples also show the
equivalent configuration in XML.
Note: All metadata drivers perform equally. Once the metadata of a class has been read from the source (annotations
or xml) it is stored in an instance of the Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetadata class and these instances
are stored in the metadata cache. If you’re not using a metadata cache (not recommended!) then the XML driver is the
fastest.
Marking our Message class as an entity for Doctrine is straightforward:

• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Message
{
//...
}
• XML

<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="Message">

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
With no additional information, Doctrine expects the entity to be saved into a table with the same name as the class in
our case Message. You can change this by configuring information about the table:
• PHP
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @Table(name="message")
*/
class Message
{
//...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="Message" table="message">

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Now the class Message will be saved and fetched from the table message.
Property Mapping
The next step after marking a PHP class as an entity is mapping its properties to columns in a table.
To configure a property use the @Column docblock annotation. The type attribute specifies the Doctrine Mapping
Type to use for the field. If the type is not specified, string is used as the default.
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Message
{
/** @Column(type="integer") */
private $id;
/** @Column(length=140) */
private $text;
/** @Column(type="datetime", name="posted_at") */
private $postedAt;
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<field name="id" type="integer" />
<field name="text" length="140" />

<field name="postedAt" column="posted_at" type="datetime" />

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
When we don’t explicitly specify a column name via the name option, Doctrine assumes the field name is also the
column name. This means that:
• the id property will map to the column id using the type integer;
• the text property will map to the column text with the default mapping type string;
• the postedAt property will map to the posted_at column with the datetime type.
The Column annotation has some more attributes. Here is a complete list:
• type: (optional, defaults to ‘string’) The mapping type to use for the column.
• name: (optional, defaults to field name) The name of the column in the database.
• length: (optional, default 255) The length of the column in the database. (Applies only if a string-valued
column is used).
• unique: (optional, default FALSE) Whether the column is a unique key.
• nullable: (optional, default FALSE) Whether the database column is nullable.
• precision: (optional, default 0) The precision for a decimal (exact numeric) column (applies only for decimal
column), which is the maximum number of digits that are stored for the values.
• scale: (optional, default 0) The scale for a decimal (exact numeric) column (applies only for decimal column),
which represents the number of digits to the right of the decimal point and must not be greater than precision.
• columnDefinition: (optional) Allows to define a custom DDL snippet that is used to create the column.
Warning: This normally confuses the SchemaTool to always detect the column as changed.
• options: (optional) Key-value pairs of options that get passed to the underlying database platform when
generating DDL statements.
Doctrine Mapping Types
The type option used in the @Column accepts any of the existing Doctrine types or even your own custom types.
A Doctrine type defines the conversion between PHP and SQL types, independent from the database vendor you are
using. All Mapping Types that ship with Doctrine are fully portable between the supported database systems.
As an example, the Doctrine Mapping Type string defines the mapping from a PHP string to a SQL VARCHAR
(or VARCHAR2 etc. depending on the RDBMS brand). Here is a quick overview of the built-in mapping types:
• string: Type that maps a SQL VARCHAR to a PHP string.
• integer: Type that maps a SQL INT to a PHP integer.
• smallint: Type that maps a database SMALLINT to a PHP integer.
• bigint: Type that maps a database BIGINT to a PHP string.
• boolean: Type that maps a SQL boolean or equivalent (TINYINT) to a PHP boolean.
• decimal: Type that maps a SQL DECIMAL to a PHP string.
• date: Type that maps a SQL DATETIME to a PHP DateTime object.
• time: Type that maps a SQL TIME to a PHP DateTime object.
• datetime: Type that maps a SQL DATETIME/TIMESTAMP to a PHP DateTime object.

• datetimetz: Type that maps a SQL DATETIME/TIMESTAMP to a PHP DateTime object with timezone.
• text: Type that maps a SQL CLOB to a PHP string.
• object: Type that maps a SQL CLOB to a PHP object using serialize() and unserialize()
• array: Type that maps a SQL CLOB to a PHP array using serialize() and unserialize()
• simple_array: Type that maps a SQL CLOB to a PHP array using implode() and explode(), with a
comma as delimiter. IMPORTANT Only use this type if you are sure that your values cannot contain a “,”.
• json_array: Type that maps a SQL CLOB to a PHP array using json_encode() and json_decode()
• float: Type that maps a SQL Float (Double Precision) to a PHP double. IMPORTANT: Works only with
locale settings that use decimal points as separator.
• guid: Type that maps a database GUID/UUID to a PHP string. Defaults to varchar but uses a specific type if
the platform supports it.
• blob: Type that maps a SQL BLOB to a PHP resource stream
A cookbook article shows how to define your own custom mapping types.
Note: DateTime and Object types are compared by reference, not by value. Doctrine updates this values if the
reference changes and therefore behaves as if these objects are immutable value objects.
Warning: All Date types assume that you are exclusively using the default timezone set by
date_default_timezone_set() or by the php.ini configuration date.timezone. Working with different timezones
will cause troubles and unexpected behavior.
If you need specific timezone handling you have to handle this in your domain, converting all the values back and
forth from UTC. There is also a cookbook entry on working with datetimes that gives hints for implementing multi
timezone applications.
Identifiers / Primary Keys
Every entity class must have an identifier/primary key. You can select the field that serves as the identifier with the
@Id annotation.
• PHP
<?php
class Message
{
/**
* @Id
* @Column(type="integer")
* @GeneratedValue
*/
private $id;
//...
}
• XML

<doctrine-mapping>
</id>

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
In most cases using the automatic generator strategy (@GeneratedValue) is what you want. It defaults to the
identifier generation mechanism your current database vendor prefers: AUTO_INCREMENT with MySQL, SERIAL
with PostgreSQL, Sequences with Oracle and so on.
Identifier Generation Strategies
The previous example showed how to use the default identifier generation strategy without knowing the underlying
database with the AUTO-detection strategy. It is also possible to specify the identifier generation strategy more ex-
plicitly, which allows you to make use of some additional features.
Here is the list of possible generation strategies:
• AUTO (default): Tells Doctrine to pick the strategy that is preferred by the used database platform. The preferred
strategies are IDENTITY for MySQL, SQLite, MsSQL and SQL Anywhere and SEQUENCE for Oracle and
PostgreSQL. This strategy provides full portability.
• SEQUENCE: Tells Doctrine to use a database sequence for ID generation. This strategy does currently not
provide full portability. Sequences are supported by Oracle, PostgreSql and SQL Anywhere.
• IDENTITY: Tells Doctrine to use special identity columns in the database that generate a value on insertion
of a row. This strategy does currently not provide full portability and is supported by the following platforms:
MySQL/SQLite/SQL Anywhere (AUTO_INCREMENT), MSSQL (IDENTITY) and PostgreSQL (SERIAL).
• UUID: Tells Doctrine to use the built-in Universally Unique Identifier generator. This strategy provides full
portability.
• TABLE: Tells Doctrine to use a separate table for ID generation. This strategy provides full portability. *This
strategy is not yet implemented!*
• NONE: Tells Doctrine that the identifiers are assigned (and thus generated) by your code. The assignment must
take place before a new entity is passed to EntityManager#persist. NONE is the same as leaving off the
@GeneratedValue entirely.
• CUSTOM: With this option, you can use the @CustomIdGenerator annotation. It will allow you to pass a
class of your own to generate the identifiers.
Sequence Generator
The Sequence Generator can currently be used in conjunction with Oracle or Postgres and allows some additional
configuration options besides specifying the sequence’s name:
• PHP
<?php
class Message
{
/**
* @Id

* @GeneratedValue(strategy="SEQUENCE")
* @SequenceGenerator(sequenceName="message_seq", initialValue=1,
˓→allocationSize=100)
*/
protected $id = null;
//...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<generator strategy="SEQUENCE" />
<sequence-generator sequence-name="message_seq" allocation-size="100"
˓→initial-value="1" />
</id>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
The initial value specifies at which value the sequence should start.
The allocationSize is a powerful feature to optimize INSERT performance of Doctrine. The allocationSize speci-
fies by how much values the sequence is incremented whenever the next value is retrieved. If this is larger than 1
(one) Doctrine can generate identifier values for the allocationSizes amount of entities. In the above example with
allocationSize=100 Doctrine 2 would only need to access the sequence once to generate the identifiers for 100
new entities.
The default allocationSize for a @SequenceGenerator is currently 10.
Caution: The allocationSize is detected by SchemaTool and transformed into an “INCREMENT BY ” clause in
the CREATE SEQUENCE statement. For a database schema created manually (and not SchemaTool) you have to
make sure that the allocationSize configuration option is never larger than the actual sequences INCREMENT BY
value, otherwise you may get duplicate keys.
Note: It is possible to use strategy=”AUTO” and at the same time specifying a @SequenceGenerator. In such a
case, your custom sequence settings are used in the case where the preferred strategy of the underlying platform is
SEQUENCE, such as for Oracle and PostgreSQL.
Composite Keys
With Doctrine 2 you can use composite primary keys, using @Id on more then one column. Some restrictions ex-
ist opposed to using a single identifier in this case: The use of the @GeneratedValue annotation is not sup-
ported, which means you can only use composite keys if you generate the primary key values yourself before calling
EntityManager#persist() on the entity.
More details on composite primary keys are discussed in a dedicated tutorial.

Quoting Reserved Words
Sometimes it is necessary to quote a column or table name because of reserved word conflicts. Doctrine does not quote
identifiers automatically, because it leads to more problems than it would solve. Quoting tables and column names
needs to be done explicitly using ticks in the definition.
<?php
/** @Column(name="`number`", type="integer") */
private $number;
Doctrine will then quote this column name in all SQL statements according to the used database platform.
Warning: Identifier Quoting does not work for join column names or discriminator column names unless you are
using a custom QuoteStrategy.
For more control over column quoting the Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\QuoteStrategy interface was introduced
in 2.3. It is invoked for every column, table, alias and other SQL names. You can implement the QuoteStrategy and
set it by calling Doctrine\ORM\Configuration#setQuoteStrategy().
The ANSI Quote Strategy was added, which assumes quoting is not necessary for any SQL name. You can use it with
the following code:
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\AnsiQuoteStrategy;
$configuration->setQuoteStrategy(new AnsiQuoteStrategy());
9.2.5 Association Mapping
This chapter explains mapping associations between objects.

Instead of working with foreign keys in your code, you will always work with references to objects instead and
Doctrine will convert those references to foreign keys internally.
• A reference to a single object is represented by a foreign key.
• A collection of objects is represented by many foreign keys pointing to the object holding the collection
This chapter is split into three different sections.
• A list of all the possible association mapping use-cases is given.
• Mapping Defaults are explained that simplify the use-case examples.
• Collections are introduced that contain entities in associations.
One tip for working with relations is to read the relation from left to right, where the left word refers to the current
Entity. For example:
• OneToMany - One instance of the current Entity has Many instances (references) to the refered Entity.
• ManyToOne - Many instances of the current Entity refer to One instance of the refered Entity.
• OneToOne - One instance of the current Entity refers to One instance of the refered Entity.
See below for all the possible relations.
An association is considered to be unidirectional if only one side of the association has a property referring to the other
side.

To gain a full understanding of associations you should also read about owning and inverse sides of associations
Many-To-One, Unidirectional
A many-to-one association is the most common association between objects. Example: Many Users have One Ad-
dress:
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class User
{
// ...
/**
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Address")
* @JoinColumn(name="address_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $address;
}
/** @Entity */
class Address
{
// ...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<many-to-one field="address" target-entity="Address">
<join-column name="address_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</many-to-one>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Note: The above @JoinColumn is optional as it would default to address_id and id anyways. You can omit it
and let it use the defaults.
Generated MySQL Schema:
CREATE TABLE User (

id INT AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL,
address_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Address (

PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE User ADD FOREIGN KEY (address_id) REFERENCES Address(id);

One-To-One, Unidirectional
Here is an example of a one-to-one association with a Product entity that references one Shipment entity.
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Product
{
// ...
/**
* One Product has One Shipment.
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="Shipment")
* @JoinColumn(name="shipment_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $shipment;
// ...
}
/** @Entity */
class Shipment
{
// ...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity class="Product">
<one-to-one field="shipment" target-entity="Shipment">
<join-column name="shipment_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</one-to-one>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Note that the @JoinColumn is not really necessary in this example, as the defaults would be the same.
CREATE TABLE Product (
shipment_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
UNIQUE INDEX UNIQ_6FBC94267FE4B2B (shipment_id),
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Shipment (
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE Product ADD FOREIGN KEY (shipment_id) REFERENCES Shipment(id);
One-To-One, Bidirectional
Here is a one-to-one relationship between a Customer and a Cart. The Cart has a reference back to the
Customer so it is bidirectional.

Here we see the mappedBy and inversedBy annotations for the first time. They are used to tell Doctrine which
property on the other side refers to the object.
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Customer
{
// ...
/**
* One Customer has One Cart.
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="Cart", mappedBy="customer")
*/
private $cart;
// ...
}
/** @Entity */
class Cart
{
// ...
/**
* One Cart has One Customer.
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="Customer", inversedBy="cart")
* @JoinColumn(name="customer_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $customer;
// ...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="Customer">
<one-to-one field="cart" target-entity="Cart" mapped-by="customer" />
</entity>
<entity name="Cart">
<one-to-one field="customer" target-entity="Customer" inversed-by="cart">
<join-column name="customer_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</one-to-one>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
CREATE TABLE Cart (

customer_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Customer (

PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE Cart ADD FOREIGN KEY (customer_id) REFERENCES Customer(id);
We had a choice of sides on which to place the inversedBy attribute. Because it is on the Cart, that is the owning
side of the relation, and thus holds the foreign key.
One-To-One, Self-referencing
You can define a self-referencing one-to-one relationships like below.
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Student
{
// ...
/**
* One Student has One Student.
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="Student")
* @JoinColumn(name="mentor_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $mentor;
// ...
}
With the generated MySQL Schema:
CREATE TABLE Student (

mentor_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE Student ADD FOREIGN KEY (mentor_id) REFERENCES Student(id);
One-To-Many, Bidirectional
A one-to-many association has to be bidirectional, unless you are using a join table. This is because the many side in
a one-to-many association holds the foreign key, making it the owning side. Doctrine needs the many side defined in
order to understand the association.
This bidirectional mapping requires the mappedBy attribute on the “one” side and the inversedBy attribute on the
“many” side.
This means there is no difference between a bidirectional one-to-many and a bidirectional many-to-one.
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Product

{
// ...
/**
* One Product has Many Features.
* @OneToMany(targetEntity="Feature", mappedBy="product")
*/
private $features;
// ...
public function __construct() {

$this->features = new ArrayCollection();
}
}
/** @Entity */
class Feature
{
// ...
/**
* Many Features have One Product.
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Product", inversedBy="features")
* @JoinColumn(name="product_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $product;
// ...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="Product">
<one-to-many field="features" target-entity="Feature" mapped-by="product"
˓→/>
</entity>
<entity name="Feature">
<many-to-one field="product" target-entity="Product" inversed-by="features
˓→">
<join-column name="product_id" referenced-column-name="id" />

</many-to-one>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
CREATE TABLE Product (

PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Feature (
product_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE Feature ADD FOREIGN KEY (product_id) REFERENCES Product(id);

One-To-Many, Unidirectional with Join Table
A unidirectional one-to-many association can be mapped through a join table. From Doctrine’s point of view, it is
simply mapped as a unidirectional many-to-many whereby a unique constraint on one of the join columns enforces
the one-to-many cardinality.
The following example sets up such a unidirectional one-to-many association:
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class User
{
// ...
/**
* Many User have Many Phonenumbers.
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Phonenumber")
* @JoinTable(name="users_phonenumbers",
* joinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="user_id", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="phonenumber_id",
˓→referencedColumnName="id", unique=true)}
* )
*/
private $phonenumbers;

{
$this->phonenumbers = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
// ...
}
/** @Entity */
class Phonenumber
{
// ...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<many-to-many field="phonenumbers" target-entity="Phonenumber">
<join-table name="users_phonenumbers">
<join-columns>
<join-column name="user_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</join-columns>
<inverse-join-columns>
<join-column name="phonenumber_id" referenced-column-name="id
˓→" unique="true" />
</inverse-join-columns>
</join-table>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>

Generates the following MySQL Schema:
CREATE TABLE User (

PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE users_phonenumbers (

user_id INT NOT NULL,
phonenumber_id INT NOT NULL,
UNIQUE INDEX users_phonenumbers_phonenumber_id_uniq (phonenumber_id),
PRIMARY KEY(user_id, phonenumber_id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Phonenumber (

PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE users_phonenumbers ADD FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES User(id);

ALTER TABLE users_phonenumbers ADD FOREIGN KEY (phonenumber_id) REFERENCES
˓→Phonenumber(id);
One-To-Many, Self-referencing
You can also setup a one-to-many association that is self-referencing. In this example we setup a hierarchy of
Category objects by creating a self referencing relationship. This effectively models a hierarchy of categories
and from the database perspective is known as an adjacency list approach.
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Category
{
// ...
/**
* One Category has Many Categories.
* @OneToMany(targetEntity="Category", mappedBy="parent")
*/
private $children;
/**
* Many Categories have One Category.
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Category", inversedBy="children")
* @JoinColumn(name="parent_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $parent;
// ...

$this->children = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
}
• XML

<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="Category">
<one-to-many field="children" target-entity="Category" mapped-by="parent"
˓→/>
<many-to-one field="parent" target-entity="Category" inversed-by="children

˓→" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
CREATE TABLE Category (

parent_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE Category ADD FOREIGN KEY (parent_id) REFERENCES Category(id);
Many-To-Many, Unidirectional
Real many-to-many associations are less common. The following example shows a unidirectional association between
User and Group entities:
• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class User
{
// ...
/**
* Many Users have Many Groups.
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Group")
* @JoinTable(name="users_groups",
* inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="group_id", referencedColumnName=
˓→"id")}
* )
*/
private $groups;
// ...

$this->groups = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
}
/** @Entity */
class Group
{
// ...
}

• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<join-table name="users_groups">
<join-columns>
</join-columns>
<join-column name="group_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</join-table>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
CREATE TABLE User (

PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE users_groups (
group_id INT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(user_id, group_id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Group (
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE users_groups ADD FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES User(id);
ALTER TABLE users_groups ADD FOREIGN KEY (group_id) REFERENCES Group(id);
Note: Why are many-to-many associations less common? Because frequently you want to associate additional
attributes with an association, in which case you introduce an association class. Consequently, the direct many-to-
many association disappears and is replaced by one-to-many/many-to-one associations between the 3 participating
classes.
Many-To-Many, Bidirectional
Here is a similar many-to-many relationship as above except this one is bidirectional.

• PHP
<?php
/** @Entity */
class User
{
// ...
/**
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Group", inversedBy="users")

* @JoinTable(name="users_groups")
*/
private $groups;

$this->groups = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
// ...
}
/** @Entity */
class Group
{
// ...
/**
* Many Groups have Many Users.
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="User", mappedBy="groups")
*/
private $users;

$this->users = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
// ...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<many-to-many field="groups" inversed-by="users" target-entity="Group">
<join-columns>
</join-columns>
</join-table>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
<entity name="Group">
<many-to-many field="users" mapped-by="groups" target-entity="User"/>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
The MySQL schema is exactly the same as for the Many-To-Many uni-directional case above.
Owning and Inverse Side on a ManyToMany Association
For Many-To-Many associations you can chose which entity is the owning and which the inverse side. There is a very
simple semantic rule to decide which side is more suitable to be the owning side from a developers perspective. You
only have to ask yourself which entity is responsible for the connection management, and pick that as the owning side.

Take an example of two entities Article and Tag. Whenever you want to connect an Article to a Tag and vice-versa,
it is mostly the Article that is responsible for this relation. Whenever you add a new article, you want to connect it
with existing or new tags. Your “Create Article” form will probably support this notion and allow specifying the tags
directly. This is why you should pick the Article as owning side, as it makes the code more understandable:
<?php
class Article
{
private $tags;
public function addTag(Tag $tag)

{
$tag->addArticle($this); // synchronously updating inverse side
$this->tags[] = $tag;
}
}
class Tag
{
private $articles;
public function addArticle(Article $article)

{
$this->articles[] = $article;
}
}
This allows to group the tag adding on the Article side of the association:
<?php
$article = new Article();
$article->addTag($tagA);
$article->addTag($tagB);
Many-To-Many, Self-referencing
You can even have a self-referencing many-to-many association. A common scenario is where a User has friends and
the target entity of that relationship is a User so it is self referencing. In this example it is bidirectional so User has
a field named $friendsWithMe and $myFriends.
<?php
/** @Entity */
class User
{
// ...
/**
* Many Users have Many Users.
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="User", mappedBy="myFriends")
*/
private $friendsWithMe;
/**
* Many Users have many Users.
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="User", inversedBy="friendsWithMe")
* @JoinTable(name="friends",

* inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="friend_user_id",
˓→ referencedColumnName="id")}
* )
*/
private $myFriends;

$this->friendsWithMe = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
$this->myFriends = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
// ...
}
CREATE TABLE User (

PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE friends (
friend_user_id INT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(user_id, friend_user_id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE friends ADD FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES User(id);
ALTER TABLE friends ADD FOREIGN KEY (friend_user_id) REFERENCES User(id);
Mapping Defaults
The @JoinColumn and @JoinTable definitions are usually optional and have sensible default values. The defaults
for a join column in a one-to-one/many-to-one association is as follows:
name: "<fieldname>_id"
referencedColumnName: "id"
As an example, consider this mapping:

• PHP
<?php
/** @OneToOne(targetEntity="Shipment") */
private $shipment;
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<one-to-one field="shipment" target-entity="Shipment" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
This is essentially the same as the following, more verbose, mapping:

• PHP

<?php
/**
* One Product has One Shipment.
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="Shipment")
* @JoinColumn(name="shipment_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $shipment;
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<one-to-one field="shipment" target-entity="Shipment">
<join-column name="shipment_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</one-to-one>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
The @JoinTable definition used for many-to-many mappings has similar defaults. As an example, consider this map-
ping:
• PHP
<?php
class User
{
//...
/** @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Group") */
private $groups;
//...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity class="User">
<many-to-many field="groups" target-entity="Group" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
This is essentially the same as the following, more verbose, mapping:

• PHP
<?php
class User
{
//...
/**
* @JoinTable(name="User_Group",
* joinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="User_id", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="Group_id", referencedColumnName=
˓→"id")}
* )
*/
private $groups;

//...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity class="User">
<join-table name="User_Group">
<join-columns>
<join-column id="User_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</join-columns>
<join-column id="Group_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</join-table>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
In that case, the name of the join table defaults to a combination of the simple, unqualified class names of the partici-
pating classes, separated by an underscore character. The names of the join columns default to the simple, unqualified
class name of the targeted class followed by “_id”. The referencedColumnName always defaults to “id”, just as in
one-to-one or many-to-one mappings.
If you accept these defaults, you can reduce the mapping code to a minimum.
Collections
Unfortunately, PHP arrays, while being great for many things, are missing features that make them suitable for
lazy loading in the context of an ORM. This is why in all the examples of many-valued associations in this man-
ual we will make use of a Collection interface and its default implementation ArrayCollection that are
both defined in the Doctrine\Common\Collections namespace. A collection implements the PHP interfaces
ArrayAccess, Traversable and Countable.
Note: The Collection interface and ArrayCollection class, like everything else in the Doctrine namespace, are neither
part of the ORM, nor the DBAL, it is a plain PHP class that has no outside dependencies apart from dependencies on
PHP itself (and the SPL). Therefore using this class in your model and elsewhere does not introduce a coupling to the
ORM.
Initializing Collections
You should always initialize the collections of your @OneToMany and @ManyToMany associations in the constructor
of your entities:
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;
/** @Entity */
class User
{
/**


* @var Collection
*/
private $groups;

{
$this->groups = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function getGroups()

{
return $this->groups;
}
}
The following code will then work even if the Entity hasn’t been associated with an EntityManager yet:
<?php
$group = new Group();
$user = new User();
$user->getGroups()->add($group);
9.2.6 Inheritance Mapping
Mapped Superclasses
A mapped superclass is an abstract or concrete class that provides persistent entity state and mapping information for
its subclasses, but which is not itself an entity. Typically, the purpose of such a mapped superclass is to define state
and mapping information that is common to multiple entity classes.
Mapped superclasses, just as regular, non-mapped classes, can appear in the middle of an otherwise mapped inheri-
tance hierarchy (through Single Table Inheritance or Class Table Inheritance).
Note: A mapped superclass cannot be an entity, it is not query-able and persistent relationships defined by a mapped
superclass must be unidirectional (with an owning side only). This means that One-To-Many associations are not
possible on a mapped superclass at all. Furthermore Many-To-Many associations are only possible if the mapped
superclass is only used in exactly one entity at the moment. For further support of inheritance, the single or joined
table inheritance features have to be used.
Example:
<?php
/** @MappedSuperclass */
class MappedSuperclassBase
{
/** @Column(type="integer") */
protected $mapped1;
/** @Column(type="string") */
protected $mapped2;
/**
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="MappedSuperclassRelated1")
* @JoinColumn(name="related1_id", referencedColumnName="id")

*/
protected $mappedRelated1;
// ... more fields and methods

}
/** @Entity */
class EntitySubClass extends MappedSuperclassBase
{
/** @Id @Column(type="integer") */
private $id;
private $name;
// ... more fields and methods

}
The DDL for the corresponding database schema would look something like this (this is for SQLite):
CREATE TABLE EntitySubClass (mapped1 INTEGER NOT NULL, mapped2 TEXT NOT NULL, id
˓→INTEGER NOT NULL, name TEXT NOT NULL, related1_id INTEGER DEFAULT NULL, PRIMARY
˓→KEY(id))
As you can see from this DDL snippet, there is only a single table for the entity subclass. All the mappings from the
mapped superclass were inherited to the subclass as if they had been defined on that class directly.
Single Table Inheritance
Single Table Inheritance is an inheritance mapping strategy where all classes of a hierarchy are mapped to a single
database table. In order to distinguish which row represents which type in the hierarchy a so-called discriminator
column is used.
Example:
• PHP
<?php
namespace MyProject\Model;
/**
* @Entity
* @InheritanceType("SINGLE_TABLE")
* @DiscriminatorColumn(name="discr", type="string")
* @DiscriminatorMap({"person" = "Person", "employee" = "Employee"})
*/
class Person
{
// ...
}
/**
* @Entity
*/
class Employee extends Person
{
// ...
}

Things to note:
• The @InheritanceType and @DiscriminatorColumn must be specified on the topmost class that is part of the
mapped entity hierarchy.
• The @DiscriminatorMap specifies which values of the discriminator column identify a row as being of a certain
type. In the case above a value of “person” identifies a row as being of type Person and “employee” identifies
a row as being of type Employee.
• All entity classes that is part of the mapped entity hierarchy (including the topmost class) should be specified in
the @DiscriminatorMap. In the case above Person class included.
• The names of the classes in the discriminator map do not need to be fully qualified if the classes are contained
in the same namespace as the entity class on which the discriminator map is applied.
• If no discriminator map is provided, then the map is generated automatically. The automatically generated
discriminator map contains the lowercase short name of each class as key.
Design-time considerations
This mapping approach works well when the type hierarchy is fairly simple and stable. Adding a new type to the
hierarchy and adding fields to existing supertypes simply involves adding new columns to the table, though in large
deployments this may have an adverse impact on the index and column layout inside the database.
Performance impact
This strategy is very efficient for querying across all types in the hierarchy or for specific types. No table joins are
required, only a WHERE clause listing the type identifiers. In particular, relationships involving types that employ
this mapping strategy are very performing.
There is a general performance consideration with Single Table Inheritance: If the target-entity of a many-to-one or
one-to-one association is an STI entity, it is preferable for performance reasons that it be a leaf entity in the inheritance
hierarchy, (ie. have no subclasses). Otherwise Doctrine CANNOT create proxy instances of this entity and will
ALWAYS load the entity eagerly.
SQL Schema considerations
For Single-Table-Inheritance to work in scenarios where you are using either a legacy database schema or a self-written
database schema you have to make sure that all columns that are not in the root entity but in any of the different sub-
entities has to allows null values. Columns that have NOT NULL constraints have to be on the root entity of the
single-table inheritance hierarchy.
Class Table Inheritance
Class Table Inheritance is an inheritance mapping strategy where each class in a hierarchy is mapped to several tables:
its own table and the tables of all parent classes. The table of a child class is linked to the table of a parent class through
a foreign key constraint. Doctrine 2 implements this strategy through the use of a discriminator column in the topmost
table of the hierarchy because this is the easiest way to achieve polymorphic queries with Class Table Inheritance.
Example:
<?php

/**
* @Entity
* @InheritanceType("JOINED")
*/
class Person
{
// ...
}
/** @Entity */
{
// ...
}
Things to note:
• The @InheritanceType, @DiscriminatorColumn and @DiscriminatorMap must be specified on the topmost
class that is part of the mapped entity hierarchy.
• The @DiscriminatorMap specifies which values of the discriminator column identify a row as being of which
type. In the case above a value of “person” identifies a row as being of type Person and “employee” identifies
a row as being of type Employee.
• The names of the classes in the discriminator map do not need to be fully qualified if the classes are contained
in the same namespace as the entity class on which the discriminator map is applied.
• If no discriminator map is provided, then the map is generated automatically. The automatically generated
discriminator map contains the lowercase short name of each class as key.
Note: When you do not use the SchemaTool to generate the required SQL you should know that deleting a class table
inheritance makes use of the foreign key property ON DELETE CASCADE in all database implementations. A failure
to implement this yourself will lead to dead rows in the database.
Design-time considerations
Introducing a new type to the hierarchy, at any level, simply involves interjecting a new table into the schema. Subtypes
of that type will automatically join with that new type at runtime. Similarly, modifying any entity type in the hierarchy
by adding, modifying or removing fields affects only the immediate table mapped to that type. This mapping strategy
provides the greatest flexibility at design time, since changes to any type are always limited to that type’s dedicated
table.
Performance impact
This strategy inherently requires multiple JOIN operations to perform just about any query which can have a negative
impact on performance, especially with large tables and/or large hierarchies. When partial objects are allowed, either
globally or on the specific query, then querying for any type will not cause the tables of subtypes to be OUTER
JOINed which can increase performance but the resulting partial objects will not fully load themselves on access of
any subtype fields, so accessing fields of subtypes after such a query is not safe.
There is a general performance consideration with Class Table Inheritance: If the target-entity of a many-to-one or
one-to-one association is a CTI entity, it is preferable for performance reasons that it be a leaf entity in the inheritance

hierarchy, (ie. have no subclasses). Otherwise Doctrine CANNOT create proxy instances of this entity and will
ALWAYS load the entity eagerly.
SQL Schema considerations
For each entity in the Class-Table Inheritance hierarchy all the mapped fields have to be columns on the table of this
entity. Additionally each child table has to have an id column that matches the id column definition on the root table
(except for any sequence or auto-increment details). Furthermore each child table has to have a foreign key pointing
from the id column to the root table id column and cascading on delete.
Overrides
Used to override a mapping for an entity field or relationship. May be applied to an entity that extends a mapped
superclass to override a relationship or field mapping defined by the mapped superclass.
Association Override
Override a mapping for an entity relationship.

Could be used by an entity that extends a mapped superclass to override a relationship mapping defined by the mapped
superclass.
Example:
• PHP
<?php
// user mapping
/**
* @MappedSuperclass
*/
class User
{
//other fields mapping
/**
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Group", inversedBy="users")
* @JoinTable(name="users_groups",
* inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="group_id", referencedColumnName="id
˓→")}
* )
*/
protected $groups;
/**
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Address")
* @JoinColumn(name="address_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
protected $address;
}
// admin mapping

/**
* @Entity
* @AssociationOverrides({
* @AssociationOverride(name="groups",
* joinTable=@JoinTable(
* name="users_admingroups",
* joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="adminuser_id"),
* inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="admingroup_id")
* )
* ),
* @AssociationOverride(name="address",
* joinColumns=@JoinColumn(
* name="adminaddress_id", referencedColumnName="id"
* )
* )
* })
*/
class Admin extends User
{
}
• XML


<doctrine-mapping>
<mapped-superclass name="MyProject\Model\User">

<many-to-many field="groups" target-entity="Group" inversed-by="users">
<cascade>
<cascade-persist/>
<cascade-refresh/>
</cascade>
<join-columns>
</join-columns>
</join-table>
</many-to-many>
</mapped-superclass>
</doctrine-mapping>


<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\Model\Admin">
<association-overrides>
<association-override name="groups">
<join-table name="users_admingroups">
<join-columns>
<join-column name="adminuser_id"/>
</join-columns>
<join-column name="admingroup_id"/>
</join-table>
</association-override>

<association-override name="address">
<join-columns>
<join-column name="adminaddress_id" referenced-column-name="id
˓→ "/>
</join-columns>
</association-override>
</association-overrides>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Things to note:
• The “association override” specifies the overrides base on the property name.
• This feature is available for all kind of associations. (OneToOne, OneToMany, ManyToOne, ManyToMany)
• The association type CANNOT be changed.
• The override could redefine the joinTables or joinColumns depending on the association type.
• The override could redefine inversedBy to reference more than one extended entity.
• The override could redefine fetch to modify the fetch strategy of the extended entity.
Attribute Override
Override the mapping of a field.

Could be used by an entity that extends a mapped superclass to override a field mapping defined by the mapped
superclass.
• PHP
<?php
// user mapping
/**
* @MappedSuperclass
*/
class User
{
/** @Id @GeneratedValue @Column(type="integer", name="user_id", length=150) */
protected $id;
/** @Column(name="user_name", nullable=true, unique=false, length=250) */

protected $name;
// other fields mapping

}
// guest mapping
/**
* @Entity
* @AttributeOverrides({
* @AttributeOverride(name="id",
* column=@Column(
* name = "guest_id",
* type = "integer",

length = 140
* )
* ),
* @AttributeOverride(name="name",
* column=@Column(
* name = "guest_name",
* nullable = false,
* unique = true,
length = 240
* )
* )
* })
*/
class Guest extends User
{
}
• XML


<doctrine-mapping>
<mapped-superclass name="MyProject\Model\User">
<id name="id" type="integer" column="user_id" length="150">
<generator strategy="AUTO"/>
</id>
<field name="name" column="user_name" type="string" length="250" nullable=
˓→"true" unique="false" />
<many-to-one field="address" target-entity="Address">

<cascade>
<cascade-persist/>
<cascade-refresh/>
</cascade>
<join-column name="address_id" referenced-column-name="id"/>
</many-to-one>

</doctrine-mapping>


<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\Model\Guest">
<attribute-overrides>
<attribute-override name="id">
<field column="guest_id" length="140"/>
</attribute-override>
<attribute-override name="name">
<field column="guest_name" type="string" length="240" nullable=
˓→"false" unique="true" />
</attribute-override>
</attribute-overrides>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Things to note:
• The “attribute override” specifies the overrides base on the property name.
• The column type CANNOT be changed. If the column type is not equal you get a MappingException

• The override can redefine all the columns except the type.
Query the Type
It may happen that the entities of a special type should be queried. Because there is no direct access to the discriminator
column, Doctrine provides the INSTANCE OF construct.
The following example shows how to use INSTANCE OF. There is a three level hierarchy with a base entity
NaturalPerson which is extended by Staff which in turn is extended by Technician.
Querying for the staffs without getting any technicians can be achieved by this DQL:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT staff FROM MyProject\Model\Staff staff WHERE staff
˓→NOT INSTANCE OF MyProject\Model\Technician");
$staffs = $query->getResult();
9.2.7 Working with Objects
In this chapter we will help you understand the EntityManager and the UnitOfWork. A Unit of Work is similar
to an object-level transaction. A new Unit of Work is implicitly started when an EntityManager is initially created
or after EntityManager#flush() has been invoked. A Unit of Work is committed (and a new one started) by
invoking EntityManager#flush().
A Unit of Work can be manually closed by calling EntityManager#close(). Any changes to objects within this Unit of
Work that have not yet been persisted are lost.
Note: It is very important to understand that only EntityManager#flush() ever causes write operations
against the database to be executed. Any other methods such as EntityManager#persist($entity) or
EntityManager#remove($entity) only notify the UnitOfWork to perform these operations during flush.
Not calling EntityManager#flush() will lead to all changes during that request being lost.
Entities and the Identity Map
Entities are objects with identity. Their identity has a conceptual meaning inside your domain. In a CMS application
each article has a unique id. You can uniquely identify each article by that id.
Take the following example, where you find an article with the headline “Hello World” with the ID 1234:
<?php
$article = $entityManager->find('CMS\Article', 1234);
$article->setHeadline('Hello World dude!');
$article2 = $entityManager->find('CMS\Article', 1234);

echo $article2->getHeadline();
In this case the Article is accessed from the entity manager twice, but modified in between. Doctrine 2 realizes this
and will only ever give you access to one instance of the Article with ID 1234, no matter how often do you retrieve
it from the EntityManager and even no matter what kind of Query method you are using (find, Repository Finder or
DQL). This is called “Identity Map” pattern, which means Doctrine keeps a map of each entity and ids that have been
retrieved per PHP request and keeps returning you the same instances.

In the previous example the echo prints “Hello World dude!” to the screen. You can even verify that $article and
$article2 are indeed pointing to the same instance by running the following code:
<?php
if ($article === $article2) {
echo "Yes we are the same!";
}
Sometimes you want to clear the identity map of an EntityManager to start over. We use this regularly in our unit-
tests to enforce loading objects from the database again instead of serving them from the identity map. You can call
EntityManager#clear() to achieve this result.
Entity Object Graph Traversal
Although Doctrine allows for a complete separation of your domain model (Entity classes) there will never be a
situation where objects are “missing” when traversing associations. You can walk all the associations inside your
entity models as deep as you want.
Take the following example of a single Article entity fetched from newly opened EntityManager.
<?php
/** @Entity */
class Article
{
/** @Id @Column(type="integer") @GeneratedValue */
private $id;
private $headline;
/** @ManyToOne(targetEntity="User") */
private $author;
/** @OneToMany(targetEntity="Comment", mappedBy="article") */

private $comments;

{
$this->comments = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function getAuthor() { return $this->author; }

public function getComments() { return $this->comments; }
}
$article = $em->find('Article', 1);
This code only retrieves the Article instance with id 1 executing a single SELECT statement against the articles
table in the database. You can still access the associated properties author and comments and the associated objects
they contain.
This works by utilizing the lazy loading pattern. Instead of passing you back a real Author instance and a collection
of comments Doctrine will create proxy instances for you. Only if you access these proxies for the first time they will
go through the EntityManager and load their state from the database.
This lazy-loading process happens behind the scenes, hidden from your code. See the following code:

<?php
// accessing a method of the user instance triggers the lazy-load

echo "Author: " . $article->getAuthor()->getName() . "\n";
// Lazy Loading Proxies pass instanceof tests:

if ($article->getAuthor() instanceof User) {
// a User Proxy is a generated "UserProxy" class
}
// accessing the comments as an iterator triggers the lazy-load

// retrieving ALL the comments of this article from the database
// using a single SELECT statement
foreach ($article->getComments() as $comment) {
echo $comment->getText() . "\n\n";
}
// Article::$comments passes instanceof tests for the Collection interface

// But it will NOT pass for the ArrayCollection interface
if ($article->getComments() instanceof \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection) {
echo "This will always be true!";
}
A slice of the generated proxy classes code looks like the following piece of code. A real proxy class override all
non-identity non-transient object state at instantiation time in order to enable lazy-loading mechanisms:
<?php
class UserProxyHASH extends User implements GhostObjectInterface
{
public static function staticProxyConstructor($initializer)

{
}
private function callInitializerHASH($methodName, array $parameters)

{
}

}
Warning: Traversing the object graph for parts that are lazy-loaded will easily trigger lots of SQL queries and
will perform badly if used to heavily. Make sure to use DQL to fetch-join all the parts of the object-graph that you
need as efficiently as possible.
Persisting entities
An entity can be made persistent by passing it to the EntityManager#persist($entity) method. By apply-

ing the persist operation on some entity, that entity becomes MANAGED, which means that its persistence is from
now on managed by an EntityManager. As a result the persistent state of such an entity will subsequently be properly

synchronized with the database when EntityManager#flush() is invoked.
Note: Invoking the persist method on an entity does NOT cause an immediate SQL INSERT to be issued on
the database. Doctrine applies a strategy called “transactional write-behind”, which means that it will delay most
SQL commands until EntityManager#flush() is invoked which will then issue all necessary SQL statements
to synchronize your objects with the database in the most efficient way and a single, short transaction, taking care of
maintaining referential integrity.
Example:
<?php
$user = new User;
$user->setName('Mr.Right');
$em->persist($user);
$em->flush();
Note: Generated entity identifiers / primary keys are guaranteed to be available after the next successful flush op-
eration that involves the entity in question. You can not rely on a generated identifier to be available directly after
invoking persist. The inverse is also true. You can not rely on a generated identifier being not available after a
failed flush operation.
The semantics of the persist operation, applied on an entity X, are as follows:

• If X is a new entity, it becomes managed. The entity X will be entered into the database as a result of the flush
operation.
• If X is a preexisting managed entity, it is ignored by the persist operation. However, the persist operation
is cascaded to entities referenced by X, if the relationships from X to these other entities are mapped with
cascade=PERSIST or cascade=ALL (see “Transitive Persistence”).
• If X is a removed entity, it becomes managed.
• If X is a detached entity, an exception will be thrown on flush.
Removing entities
An entity can be removed from persistent storage by passing it to the EntityManager#remove($entity)

method. By applying the remove operation on some entity, that entity becomes REMOVED, which means that its
persistent state will be deleted once EntityManager#flush() is invoked.
Note: Just like persist, invoking remove on an entity does NOT cause an immediate SQL DELETE to be issued
on the database. The entity will be deleted on the next invocation of EntityManager#flush() that involves
that entity. This means that entities scheduled for removal can still be queried for and appear in query and collection
results. See the section on Database and UnitOfWork Out-Of-Sync for more information.
Example:
<?php
$em->remove($user);
$em->flush();
The semantics of the remove operation, applied to an entity X are as follows:

• If X is a new entity, it is ignored by the remove operation. However, the remove operation is cascaded to
entities referenced by X, if the relationship from X to these other entities is mapped with cascade=REMOVE or
cascade=ALL (see “Transitive Persistence”).
• If X is a managed entity, the remove operation causes it to become removed. The remove operation is cascaded
to entities referenced by X, if the relationships from X to these other entities is mapped with cascade=REMOVE
or cascade=ALL (see “Transitive Persistence”).
• If X is a detached entity, an InvalidArgumentException will be thrown.
• If X is a removed entity, it is ignored by the remove operation.
• A removed entity X will be removed from the database as a result of the flush operation.
After an entity has been removed its in-memory state is the same as before the removal, except for generated identifiers.
Removing an entity will also automatically delete any existing records in many-to-many join tables that link this
entity. The action taken depends on the value of the @joinColumn mapping attribute “onDelete”. Either Doctrine
issues a dedicated DELETE statement for records of each join table or it depends on the foreign key semantics of
onDelete=”CASCADE”.
Deleting an object with all its associated objects can be achieved in multiple ways with very different performance
impacts.
1. If an association is marked as CASCADE=REMOVE Doctrine 2 will fetch this association. If its a Single associ-
ation it will pass this entity to ´EntityManager#remove()‘‘. If the association is a collection, Doctrine will loop
over all its elements and pass them to‘‘EntityManager#remove()‘. In both cases the cascade remove semantics
are applied recursively. For large object graphs this removal strategy can be very costly.
2. Using a DQL DELETE statement allows you to delete multiple entities of a type with a single command and
without hydrating these entities. This can be very efficient to delete large object graphs from the database.
3. Using foreign key semantics onDelete="CASCADE" can force the database to remove all associated objects
internally. This strategy is a bit tricky to get right but can be very powerful and fast. You should be aware how-
ever that using strategy 1 (CASCADE=REMOVE) completely by-passes any foreign key onDelete=CASCADE
option, because Doctrine will fetch and remove all associated entities explicitly nevertheless.
Detaching entities
All entities are detached from an EntityManager and thus no longer managed by it after invoking the
EntityManager#clear() method. Changes made to the detached entities, if any (including their removal),
will not be synchronized to the database after they have been detached.
Doctrine will not hold on to any references to detached entities.
Example:
<?php
$em->clear();
The semantics of the detach operation, applied to an entity X are as follows:

• If X is a managed entity, the clear operation causes it to become detached. Entities which previously refer-
enced X will continue to reference X.
• If X is a new or detached entity, it is ignored by the detach operation.
• If X is a removed entity, it will become detached, and therefore no longer scheduled to be removed. Entities
which previously referenced X will continue to reference X.
There are several situations in which an entity is detached automatically:

• When serializing an entity. The entity retrieved upon subsequent unserialization will be detached (This is the
case for all entities that are serialized and stored in some cache).
Synchronization with the Database
The state of persistent entities is synchronized with the database on flush of an EntityManager which commits
the underlying UnitOfWork. The synchronization involves writing any updates to persistent entities and their rela-
tionships to the database. Thereby bidirectional relationships are persisted based on the references held by the owning
side of the relationship as explained in the Association Mapping chapter.
When EntityManager#flush() is called, Doctrine inspects all managed, new and removed entities and will
perform the following operations.
Effects of Database and UnitOfWork being Out-Of-Sync
As soon as you begin to change the state of entities, call persist or remove the contents of the UnitOfWork and the
database will drive out of sync. They can only be synchronized by calling EntityManager#flush(). This
section describes the effects of database and UnitOfWork being out of sync.
• Entities that are scheduled for removal can still be queried from the database. They are returned from DQL and
Repository queries and are visible in collections.
• Entities that are passed to EntityManager#persist do not turn up in query results.
• Entities that have changed will not be overwritten with the state from the database. This is because the identity
map will detect the construction of an already existing entity and assumes its the most up to date version.
EntityManager#flush() is never called implicitly by Doctrine. You always have to trigger it manually.
Synchronizing New and Managed Entities
The flush operation applies to a managed entity with the following semantics:
• The entity itself is synchronized to the database using a SQL UPDATE statement, only if at least one persistent
field has changed.
• No SQL updates are executed if the entity did not change.
The flush operation applies to a new entity with the following semantics:
• The entity itself is synchronized to the database using a SQL INSERT statement.
For all (initialized) relationships of the new or managed entity the following semantics apply to each associated entity
X:
• If X is new and persist operations are configured to cascade on the relationship, X will be persisted.
• If X is new and no persist operations are configured to cascade on the relationship, an exception will be thrown
as this indicates a programming error.
• If X is removed and persist operations are configured to cascade on the relationship, an exception will be thrown
as this indicates a programming error (X would be re-persisted by the cascade).
• If X is detached and persist operations are configured to cascade on the relationship, an exception will be thrown
(This is semantically the same as passing X to persist()).

Synchronizing Removed Entities
The flush operation applies to a removed entity by deleting its persistent state from the database. No cas-
cade options are relevant for removed entities on flush, the cascade remove option is already executed during
EntityManager#remove($entity).
The size of a Unit of Work
The size of a Unit of Work mainly refers to the number of managed entities at a particular point in time.
The cost of flushing
How costly a flush operation is, mainly depends on two factors:

• The size of the EntityManager’s current UnitOfWork.
• The configured change tracking policies
You can get the size of a UnitOfWork as follows:
<?php
$uowSize = $em->getUnitOfWork()->size();
The size represents the number of managed entities in the Unit of Work. This size affects the performance of flush()
operations due to change tracking (see “Change Tracking Policies”) and, of course, memory consumption, so you may
want to check it from time to time during development.
Note: Do not invoke flush after every change to an entity or every single invocation of persist/remove/refresh/. . .
This is an anti-pattern and unnecessarily reduces the performance of your application. Instead, form units of work that
operate on your objects and call flush when you are done. While serving a single HTTP request there should be
usually no need for invoking flush more than 0-2 times.
Direct access to a Unit of Work
You can get direct access to the Unit of Work by calling EntityManager#getUnitOfWork(). This will return
the UnitOfWork instance the EntityManager is currently using.
<?php
$uow = $em->getUnitOfWork();
Note: Directly manipulating a UnitOfWork is not recommended. When working directly with the UnitOfWork API,
respect methods marked as INTERNAL by not using them and carefully read the API documentation.
Entity State
As outlined in the architecture overview an entity can be in one of four possible states: NEW, MANAGED, RE-
MOVED, DETACHED. If you explicitly need to find out what the current state of an entity is in the context of a
certain EntityManager you can ask the underlying UnitOfWork:

<?php
switch ($em->getUnitOfWork()->getEntityState($entity)) {
case UnitOfWork::STATE_MANAGED:
...
case UnitOfWork::STATE_REMOVED:
...
case UnitOfWork::STATE_DETACHED:
...
case UnitOfWork::STATE_NEW:
...
}
An entity is in MANAGED state if it is associated with an EntityManager and it is not REMOVED.

An entity is in REMOVED state after it has been passed to EntityManager#remove() until the next flush
operation of the same EntityManager. A REMOVED entity is still associated with an EntityManager until the
next flush operation.
An entity is in DETACHED state if it has persistent state and identity but is currently not associated with an
EntityManager.
An entity is in NEW state if has no persistent state and identity and is not associated with an EntityManager (for
example those just created via the “new” operator).
Querying
Doctrine 2 provides the following ways, in increasing level of power and flexibility, to query for persistent objects.
You should always start with the simplest one that suits your needs.
By Primary Key
The most basic way to query for a persistent object is by its identifier / primary key using the
EntityManager#find($entityName, $id) method. Here is an example:
<?php
// $em instanceof EntityManager
$user = $em->find('MyProject\Domain\User', $id);
The return value is either the found entity instance or null if no instance could be found with the given identifier.
Essentially, EntityManager#find() is just a shortcut for the following:
<?php
$user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->find($id);
EntityManager#getRepository($entityName) returns a repository object which provides many

ways to retrieve entities of the specified type. By default, the repository instance is of type
Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository. You can also use custom repository classes as shown later.
By Simple Conditions
To query for one or more entities based on several conditions that form a logical conjunction, use the findBy and
findOneBy methods on a repository as follows:

<?php
// All users that are 20 years old

$users = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findBy(array('age' => 20));
// All users that are 20 years old and have a surname of 'Miller'
$users = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findBy(array('age' => 20,
˓→'surname' => 'Miller'));
// A single user by its nickname

$user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findOneBy(array('nickname' =>
˓→'romanb'));
You can also load by owning side associations through the repository:
<?php
$number = $em->find('MyProject\Domain\Phonenumber', 1234);
$user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findOneBy(array('phone' =>
˓→$number->getId()));
The EntityRepository#findBy() method additionally accepts orderings, limit and offset as second to fourth
parameters:
<?php
$tenUsers = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findBy(array('age' => 20),
˓→array('name' => 'ASC'), 10, 0);
If you pass an array of values Doctrine will convert the query into a WHERE field IN (..) query automatically:
<?php
$users = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findBy(array('age' => array(20,
˓→30, 40)));
// translates roughly to: SELECT * FROM users WHERE age IN (20, 30, 40)
An EntityRepository also provides a mechanism for more concise calls through its use of __call. Thus, the following
two examples are equivalent:
<?php
// A single user by its nickname
$user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findOneBy(array('nickname' =>
˓→'romanb'));
// A single user by its nickname (__call magic)

$user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findOneByNickname('romanb');
Additionally, you can just count the result of the provided conditions when you don’t really need the data:
<?php
// Check there is no user with nickname
$availableNickname = 0 === $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->count([
˓→'nickname' => 'nonexistent']);
By Criteria
New in version 2.3.

The Repository implement the Doctrine\Common\Collections\Selectable interface. That means you

can build Doctrine\Common\Collections\Criteria and pass them to the matching($criteria)
method.
See section Filtering collections of chapter Working with Associations
By Eager Loading
Whenever you query for an entity that has persistent associations and these associations are mapped as EAGER,
they will automatically be loaded together with the entity being queried and is thus immediately available to your
application.
By Lazy Loading
Whenever you have a managed entity instance at hand, you can traverse and use any associations of that entity that
are configured LAZY as if they were in-memory already. Doctrine will automatically load the associated objects on
demand through the concept of lazy-loading.
By DQL
The most powerful and flexible method to query for persistent objects is the Doctrine Query Language, an object query
language. DQL enables you to query for persistent objects in the language of objects. DQL understands classes, fields,
inheritance and associations. DQL is syntactically very similar to the familiar SQL but it is not SQL.
A DQL query is represented by an instance of the Doctrine\ORM\Query class. You create a query using
EntityManager#createQuery($dql). Here is a simple example:
<?php
// All users with an age between 20 and 30 (inclusive).

$q = $em->createQuery("select u from MyDomain\Model\User u where u.age >= 20 and u.
˓→age <= 30");
$users = $q->getResult();
Note that this query contains no knowledge about the relational schema, only about the object model. DQL supports
positional as well as named parameters, many functions, (fetch) joins, aggregates, subqueries and much more. Detailed
information about DQL and its syntax as well as the Doctrine class can be found in the dedicated chapter. For
programmatically building up queries based on conditions that are only known at runtime, Doctrine provides the
special Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder class. More information on constructing queries with a QueryBuilder
can be found in Query Builder chapter.
By Native Queries
As an alternative to DQL or as a fallback for special SQL statements native queries can be used. Native queries are
built by using a hand-crafted SQL query and a ResultSetMapping that describes how the SQL result set should be
transformed by Doctrine. More information about native queries can be found in the dedicated chapter.

Custom Repositories
By default the EntityManager returns a default implementation of Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository when

you call EntityManager#getRepository($entityClass). You can overwrite this behaviour by specify-
ing the class name of your own Entity Repository in the Annotation or XML metadata. In large applications that
require lots of specialized DQL queries using a custom repository is one recommended way of grouping these queries
in a central location.
<?php
namespace MyDomain\Model;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="MyDomain\Model\UserRepository")
*/
class User
{
class UserRepository extends EntityRepository

{
public function getAllAdminUsers()
{
return $this->em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM MyDomain\Model\User u WHERE u.
˓→status = "admin"')
->getResult();
}
}
You can access your repository now by calling:
<?php
$admins = $em->getRepository('MyDomain\Model\User')->getAllAdminUsers();
9.2.8 Working with Associations
Associations between entities are represented just like in regular object-oriented PHP code using references to other
objects or collections of objects.
Changes to associations in your code are not synchronized to the database directly, only when calling
EntityManager#flush().
There are other concepts you should know about when working with associations in Doctrine:
• If an entity is removed from a collection, the association is removed, not the entity itself. A collection of entities
always only represents the association to the containing entities, not the entity itself.
• When a bidirectional assocation is updated, Doctrine only checks on one of both sides for these changes. This
is called the owning side of the association.
• A property with a reference to many entities has to be instances of the
Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection interface.

Association Example Entities
We will use a simple comment system with Users and Comments as entities to show examples of association manage-
ment. See the PHP docblocks of each association in the following example for information about its type and if it’s
the owning or inverse side.
<?php
/** @Entity */
class User
{
/** @Id @GeneratedValue @Column(type="string") */
private $id;
/**
* Bidirectional - Many users have Many favorite comments (OWNING SIDE)
*
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Comment", inversedBy="userFavorites")
* @JoinTable(name="user_favorite_comments")
*/
private $favorites;
/**
* Unidirectional - Many users have marked many comments as read
*
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Comment")
* @JoinTable(name="user_read_comments")
*/
private $commentsRead;
/**
* Bidirectional - One-To-Many (INVERSE SIDE)
*
* @OneToMany(targetEntity="Comment", mappedBy="author")
*/
private $commentsAuthored;
/**
* Unidirectional - Many-To-One
*
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Comment")
*/
private $firstComment;
}
/** @Entity */
class Comment
{
/** @Id @GeneratedValue @Column(type="string") */
private $id;
/**
* Bidirectional - Many comments are favorited by many users (INVERSE SIDE)
*
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="User", mappedBy="favorites")
*/
private $userFavorites;
/**

* Bidirectional - Many Comments are authored by one user (OWNING SIDE)

*
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="User", inversedBy="commentsAuthored")
*/
private $author;
}
This two entities generate the following MySQL Schema (Foreign Key definitions omitted):
CREATE TABLE User (

id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
firstComment_id VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Comment (

id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
author_id VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE user_favorite_comments (

user_id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
favorite_comment_id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(user_id, favorite_comment_id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE user_read_comments (

user_id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
comment_id VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(user_id, comment_id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
Establishing Associations
Establishing an association between two entities is straight-forward. Here are some examples for the unidirectional
relations of the User:
<?php
class User
{
// ...
public function getReadComments() {
return $this->commentsRead;
}
public function setFirstComment(Comment $c) {

$this->firstComment = $c;
}
}
The interaction code would then look like in the following snippet ($em here is an instance of the EntityManager):
<?php
$user = $em->find('User', $userId);

// unidirectional many to many

$comment = $em->find('Comment', $readCommentId);
$user->getReadComments()->add($comment);
$em->flush();
// unidirectional many to one

$myFirstComment = new Comment();
$user->setFirstComment($myFirstComment);
$em->persist($myFirstComment);
$em->flush();
In the case of bi-directional associations you have to update the fields on both sides:
<?php
class User
{
// ..
public function getAuthoredComments() {

return $this->commentsAuthored;
}
public function getFavoriteComments() {

return $this->favorites;
}
}
class Comment
{
// ...
public function getUserFavorites() {

return $this->userFavorites;
}
public function setAuthor(User $author = null) {

$this->author = $author;
}
}
// Many-to-Many
$user->getFavorites()->add($favoriteComment);
$favoriteComment->getUserFavorites()->add($user);
$em->flush();
// Many-To-One / One-To-Many Bidirectional

$newComment = new Comment();
$user->getAuthoredComments()->add($newComment);
$newComment->setAuthor($user);
$em->persist($newComment);
$em->flush();
Notice how always both sides of the bidirectional association are updated. The previous unidirectional associations
were simpler to handle.

Removing Associations
Removing an association between two entities is similarly straight-forward. There are two strategies to do so, by key
and by element. Here are some examples:
<?php
// Remove by Elements
$user->getComments()->removeElement($comment);
$comment->setAuthor(null);
$user->getFavorites()->removeElement($comment);
$comment->getUserFavorites()->removeElement($user);
// Remove by Key
$user->getComments()->remove($ithComment);
$comment->setAuthor(null);
You need to call $em->flush() to make persist these changes in the database permanently.
Notice how both sides of the bidirectional association are always updated. Unidirectional associations are consequently
simpler to handle.
Also note that if you use type-hinting in your methods, you will have to specify a nullable type, i.e. setAddress(?
Address $address), otherwise setAddress(null) will fail to remove the association. Another way to deal
with this is to provide a special method, like removeAddress(). This can also provide better encapsulation as it
hides the internal meaning of not having an address.
When working with collections, keep in mind that a Collection is essentially an ordered map (just like a PHP array).
That is why the remove operation accepts an index/key. removeElement is a separate method that has O(n)
complexity using array_search, where n is the size of the map.
Note: Since Doctrine always only looks at the owning side of a bidirectional association for updates, it is not necessary
for write operations that an inverse collection of a bidirectional one-to-many or many-to-many association is updated.
This knowledge can often be used to improve performance by avoiding the loading of the inverse collection.
You can also clear the contents of a whole collection using the Collections::clear() method. You should
be aware that using this method can lead to a straight and optimized database delete or update call during the flush
operation that is not aware of entities that have been re-added to the collection.
Say you clear a collection of tags by calling $post->getTags()->clear(); and then call
$post->getTags()->add($tag). This will not recognize the tag having already been added previously
and will consequently issue two separate database calls.
Association Management Methods
It is generally a good idea to encapsulate proper association management inside the entity classes. This makes it easier
to use the class correctly and can encapsulate details about how the association is maintained.
The following code shows updates to the previous User and Comment example that encapsulate much of the associa-
tion management code:
<?php
class User
{
//...
public function markCommentRead(Comment $comment) {

// Collections implement ArrayAccess

$this->commentsRead[] = $comment;
}
public function addComment(Comment $comment) {

if (count($this->commentsAuthored) == 0) {
$this->setFirstComment($comment);
}
$this->comments[] = $comment;
$comment->setAuthor($this);
}
private function setFirstComment(Comment $c) {

$this->firstComment = $c;
}
public function addFavorite(Comment $comment) {

$this->favorites->add($comment);
$comment->addUserFavorite($this);
}
public function removeFavorite(Comment $comment) {

$this->favorites->removeElement($comment);
$comment->removeUserFavorite($this);
}
}
class Comment
{
// ..
public function addUserFavorite(User $user) {

$this->userFavorites[] = $user;
}
public function removeUserFavorite(User $user) {

$this->userFavorites->removeElement($user);
}
}
You will notice that addUserFavorite and removeUserFavorite do not call addFavorite and
removeFavorite, thus the bidirectional association is strictly-speaking still incomplete. However if you would
naively add the addFavorite in addUserFavorite, you end up with an infinite loop, so more work is needed.
As you can see, proper bidirectional association management in plain OOP is a non-trivial task and encapsulating all
the details inside the classes can be challenging.
Note: If you want to make sure that your collections are perfectly encapsulated you should not return them from a
getCollectionName() method directly, but call $collection->toArray(). This way a client programmer
for the entity cannot circumvent the logic you implement on your entity for association management. For example:
<?php
class User {
public function getReadComments() {
return $this->commentsRead->toArray();
}
}

This will however always initialize the collection, with all the performance penalties given the size. In some sce-
narios of large collections it might even be a good idea to completely hide the read access behind methods on the
EntityRepository.
There is no single, best way for association management. It greatly depends on the requirements of your concrete
domain model as well as your preferences.
Synchronizing Bidirectional Collections
In the case of Many-To-Many associations you as the developer have the responsibility of keeping the collections on
the owning and inverse side in sync when you apply changes to them. Doctrine can only guarantee a consistent state
for the hydration, not for your client code.
Using the User-Comment entities from above, a very simple example can show the possible caveats you can encounter:
<?php
$user->getFavorites()->add($favoriteComment);
// not calling $favoriteComment->getUserFavorites()->add($user);
$user->getFavorites()->contains($favoriteComment); // TRUE
$favoriteComment->getUserFavorites()->contains($user); // FALSE
There are two approaches to handle this problem in your code:

1. Ignore updating the inverse side of bidirectional collections, BUT never read from them in requests that changed
their state. In the next request Doctrine hydrates the consistent collection state again.
2. Always keep the bidirectional collections in sync through association management methods. Reads of the
Collections directly after changes are consistent then.
Transitive persistence / Cascade Operations
Doctrine 2 provides a mechanism for transitive persistence through cascading of certain operations. Each association
to another entity or a collection of entities can be configured to automatically cascade the following operations to the
associated entities: persist, remove, refresh or all.
The main use case for cascade: persist is to avoid “exposing” associated entities to your PHP application.
Continuing with the User-Comment example of this chapter, this is how the creation of a new user and a new comment
might look like in your controller (without cascade: persist):
<?php
$user = new User();
$myFirstComment = new Comment();
$user->addComment($myFirstComment);
$em->persist($myFirstComment); // required, if `cascade: persist` is not set
$em->flush();
Note that the Comment entity is instantiated right here in the controller. To avoid this, cascade: persist allows
you to “hide” the Comment entity from the controller, only accessing it through the User entity:
<?php
// User entity
class User

{
private $id;
private $comments;

{
$this->id = User::new();
$this->comments = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function comment(string $text, DateTimeInterface $time) : void

{
$newComment = Comment::create($text, $time);
$newComment->setUser($this);
$this->comments->add($newComment);
}
// ...
}
If you then set up the cascading to the User#commentsAuthored property. . .
<?php
class User
{
//...
/**
* Bidirectional - One-To-Many (INVERSE SIDE)
*
* @OneToMany(targetEntity="Comment", mappedBy="author", cascade={"persist",
˓→"remove"})
*/
private $commentsAuthored;
//...
}
. . . you can now create a user and an associated comment like this:
<?php
$user = new User();
$user->comment('Lorem ipsum', new DateTime());
$em->flush();
Note: The idea of cascade: persist is not to save you any lines of code in the controller. If you instantiate the
comment object in the controller (i.e. don’t set up the user entity as shown above), even with cascade: persist
you still have to call $myFirstComment->setUser($user);.
Thanks to cascade: remove, you can easily delete a user and all linked comments without having to loop
through them:
<?php
$user = $em->find('User', $deleteUserId);

$em->remove($user);
$em->flush();
Note: Cascade operations are performed in memory. That means collections and related entities are fetched into
memory (even if they are marked as lazy) when the cascade operation is about to be performed. This approach allows
entity lifecycle events to be performed for each of these operations.
However, pulling object graphs into memory on cascade can cause considerable performance overhead, especially
when the cascaded collections are large. Make sure to weigh the benefits and downsides of each cascade operation
that you define.
To rely on the database level cascade operations for the delete operation instead, you can configure each join column
with the onDelete option.
Even though automatic cascading is convenient, it should be used with care. Do not blindly apply cascade=all to
all associations as it will unnecessarily degrade the performance of your application. For each cascade operation that
gets activated, Doctrine also applies that operation to the association, be it single or collection valued.
Persistence by Reachability: Cascade Persist
There are additional semantics that apply to the Cascade Persist operation. During each flush() operation Doctrine
detects if there are new entities in any collection and three possible cases can happen:
1. New entities in a collection marked as cascade: persist will be directly persisted by Doctrine.
2. New entities in a collection not marked as cascade: persist will produce an Exception and rollback the
flush() operation.
3. Collections without new entities are skipped.
This concept is called Persistence by Reachability: New entities that are found on already managed entities are auto-
matically persisted as long as the association is defined as cascade: persist.
Orphan Removal
There is another concept of cascading that is relevant only when removing entities from collections. If an Entity of
type A contains references to privately owned Entities B then if the reference from A to B is removed the entity B
should also be removed, because it is not used anymore.
OrphanRemoval works with one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many associations.
Note: When using the orphanRemoval=true option Doctrine makes the assumption that the entities are privately
owned and will NOT be reused by other entities. If you neglect this assumption your entities will get deleted by
Doctrine even if you assigned the orphaned entity to another one.
As a better example consider an Addressbook application where you have Contacts, Addresses and StandingData:
<?php
namespace Addressbook;

/**
* @Entity
*/
class Contact
{
private $id;
/** @OneToOne(targetEntity="StandingData", orphanRemoval=true) */

private $standingData;
/** @OneToMany(targetEntity="Address", mappedBy="contact", orphanRemoval=true) */

private $addresses;

{
$this->addresses = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function newStandingData(StandingData $sd)

{
$this->standingData = $sd;
}
public function removeAddress($pos)

{
unset($this->addresses[$pos]);
}
}
Now two examples of what happens when you remove the references:
<?php
$contact = $em->find("Addressbook\Contact", $contactId);

$contact->newStandingData(new StandingData("Firstname", "Lastname", "Street"));
$contact->removeAddress(1);
$em->flush();
In this case you have not only changed the Contact entity itself but you have also removed the references for standing
data and as well as one address reference. When flush is called not only are the references removed but both the old
standing data and the one address entity are also deleted from the database.
Filtering Collections
Collections have a filtering API that allows to slice parts of data from a collection. If the collection has not been loaded
from the database yet, the filtering API can work on the SQL level to make optimized access to large collections.
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Criteria;
$group = $entityManager->find('Group', $groupId);

$userCollection = $group->getUsers();
$criteria = Criteria::create()

->where(Criteria::expr()->eq("birthday", "1982-02-17"))
->orderBy(array("username" => Criteria::ASC))
->setFirstResult(0)
->setMaxResults(20)
;
$birthdayUsers = $userCollection->matching($criteria);
Tip: You can move the access of slices of collections into dedicated methods of an entity. For example
Group#getTodaysBirthdayUsers().
The Criteria has a limited matching language that works both on the SQL and on the PHP collection level. This means
you can use collection matching interchangeably, independent of in-memory or sql-backed collections.
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\Collections;
class Criteria
{
/**
* @return Criteria
*/
static public function create();
/**
* @param Expression $where
* @return Criteria
*/
public function where(Expression $where);
/**
* @return Criteria
*/
public function andWhere(Expression $where);
/**
* @return Criteria
*/
public function orWhere(Expression $where);
/**
* @param array $orderings
* @return Criteria
*/
public function orderBy(array $orderings);
/**
* @param int $firstResult
* @return Criteria
*/
public function setFirstResult($firstResult);
/**
* @param int $maxResults
* @return Criteria
*/
public function setMaxResults($maxResults);
public function getOrderings();
public function getWhereExpression();

public function getFirstResult();

public function getMaxResults();
}
You can build expressions through the ExpressionBuilder. It has the following methods:
• andX($arg1, $arg2, ...)
• orX($arg1, $arg2, ...)
• eq($field, $value)
• gt($field, $value)
• lt($field, $value)
• lte($field, $value)
• gte($field, $value)
• neq($field, $value)
• isNull($field)
• in($field, array $values)
• notIn($field, array $values)
• contains($field, $value)
• startsWith($field, $value)
• endsWith($field, $value)
Note: There is a limitation on the compatibility of Criteria comparisons. You have to use scalar values only as the
value in a comparison or the behaviour between different backends is not the same.
9.2.9 Events
Doctrine 2 features a lightweight event system that is part of the Common package. Doctrine uses it to dispatch system
events, mainly lifecycle events. You can also use it for your own custom events.
The Event System
The event system is controlled by the EventManager. It is the central point of Doctrine’s event listener system.
Listeners are registered on the manager and events are dispatched through the manager.
<?php
$evm = new EventManager();
Now we can add some event listeners to the $evm. Let’s create a TestEvent class to play around with.
<?php
class TestEvent
{
const preFoo = 'preFoo';
const postFoo = 'postFoo';

private $_evm;
public $preFooInvoked = false;

public $postFooInvoked = false;
public function __construct($evm)

{
$evm->addEventListener(array(self::preFoo, self::postFoo), $this);
}
public function preFoo(EventArgs $e)

{
$this->preFooInvoked = true;
}
public function postFoo(EventArgs $e)

{
$this->postFooInvoked = true;
}
}
// Create a new instance

$test = new TestEvent($evm);
Events can be dispatched by using the dispatchEvent() method.

<?php
$evm->dispatchEvent(TestEvent::preFoo);
$evm->dispatchEvent(TestEvent::postFoo);
You can easily remove a listener with the removeEventListener() method.

<?php
$evm->removeEventListener(array(self::preFoo, self::postFoo), $this);
The Doctrine 2 event system also has a simple concept of event subscribers. We can define a simple
TestEventSubscriber class which implements the \Doctrine\Common\EventSubscriber interface
and implements a getSubscribedEvents() method which returns an array of events it should be subscribed
to.
<?php
class TestEventSubscriber implements \Doctrine\Common\EventSubscriber
{
public $preFooInvoked = false;
public function preFoo()

{
$this->preFooInvoked = true;
}
public function getSubscribedEvents()

{
return array(TestEvent::preFoo);
}
}
$eventSubscriber = new TestEventSubscriber();

$evm->addEventSubscriber($eventSubscriber);

Note: The array to return in the getSubscribedEvents method is a simple array with the values being the event
names. The subscriber must have a method that is named exactly like the event.
Now when you dispatch an event, any event subscribers will be notified for that event.
<?php
$evm->dispatchEvent(TestEvent::preFoo);
Now you can test the $eventSubscriber instance to see if the preFoo() method was invoked.
<?php
if ($eventSubscriber->preFooInvoked) {
echo 'pre foo invoked!';
}
Naming convention
Events being used with the Doctrine 2 EventManager are best named with camelcase and the value of the correspond-
ing constant should be the name of the constant itself, even with spelling. This has several reasons:
• It is easy to read.
• Simplicity.
• Each method within an EventSubscriber is named after the corresponding constant’s value. If the constant’s
name and value differ it contradicts the intention of using the constant and makes your code harder to maintain.
An example for a correct notation can be found in the example TestEvent above.
Lifecycle Events
The EntityManager and UnitOfWork trigger a bunch of events during the life-time of their registered entities.
• preRemove - The preRemove event occurs for a given entity before the respective EntityManager remove oper-
ation for that entity is executed. It is not called for a DQL DELETE statement.
• postRemove - The postRemove event occurs for an entity after the entity has been deleted. It will be invoked
after the database delete operations. It is not called for a DQL DELETE statement.
• prePersist - The prePersist event occurs for a given entity before the respective EntityManager persist operation
for that entity is executed. It should be noted that this event is only triggered on initial persist of an entity (i.e. it
does not trigger on future updates).
• postPersist - The postPersist event occurs for an entity after the entity has been made persistent. It will be
invoked after the database insert operations. Generated primary key values are available in the postPersist event.
• preUpdate - The preUpdate event occurs before the database update operations to entity data. It is not called for
a DQL UPDATE statement nor when the computed changeset is empty.
• postUpdate - The postUpdate event occurs after the database update operations to entity data. It is not called for
a DQL UPDATE statement.
• postLoad - The postLoad event occurs for an entity after the entity has been loaded into the current EntityMan-
ager from the database or after the refresh operation has been applied to it.

• loadClassMetadata - The loadClassMetadata event occurs after the mapping metadata for a class has been loaded
from a mapping source (annotations/xml). This event is not a lifecycle callback.
• onClassMetadataNotFound - Loading class metadata for a particular requested class name failed. Manipulating
the given event args instance allows providing fallback metadata even when no actual metadata exists or could
be found. This event is not a lifecycle callback.
• preFlush - The preFlush event occurs at the very beginning of a flush operation.
• onFlush - The onFlush event occurs after the change-sets of all managed entities are computed. This event is
not a lifecycle callback.
• postFlush - The postFlush event occurs at the end of a flush operation. This event is not a lifecycle callback.
• onClear - The onClear event occurs when the EntityManager#clear() operation is invoked, after all references to
entities have been removed from the unit of work. This event is not a lifecycle callback.
Warning: Note that, when using Doctrine\ORM\AbstractQuery#iterate(), postLoad events will

be executed immediately after objects are being hydrated, and therefore associations are not guaranteed to be ini-
tialized. It is not safe to combine usage of Doctrine\ORM\AbstractQuery#iterate() and postLoad
event handlers.
Warning: Note that the postRemove event or any events triggered after an entity removal can receive an unini-
tializable proxy in case you have configured an entity to cascade remove relations. In this case, you should load
yourself the proxy in the associated pre event.
You can access the Event constants from the Events class in the ORM package.
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Events;
echo Events::preUpdate;
These can be hooked into by two different types of event listeners:

• Lifecycle Callbacks are methods on the entity classes that are called when the event is triggered. As of v2.4 they
receive some kind of EventArgs instance.
• Lifecycle Event Listeners and Subscribers are classes with specific callback methods that receives some kind of
EventArgs instance.
The EventArgs instance received by the listener gives access to the entity, EntityManager and other relevant data.
Note: All Lifecycle events that happen during the flush() of an EntityManager have very specific constraints on
the allowed operations that can be executed. Please read the Implementing Event Listeners section very carefully to
understand which operations are allowed in which lifecycle event.
Lifecycle Callbacks
Lifecycle Callbacks are defined on an entity class. They allow you to trigger callbacks whenever an instance of that
entity class experiences a relevant lifecycle event. More than one callback can be defined for each lifecycle event.
Lifecycle Callbacks are best used for simple operations specific to a particular entity class’s lifecycle.

<?php
/** @Entity @HasLifecycleCallbacks */

class User
{
// ...
/**
* @Column(type="string", length=255)
*/
public $value;
/** @Column(name="created_at", type="string", length=255) */

private $createdAt;
/** @PrePersist */
public function doStuffOnPrePersist()
{
$this->createdAt = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
}
/** @PrePersist */
public function doOtherStuffOnPrePersist()
{
$this->value = 'changed from prePersist callback!';
}
/** @PostPersist */
public function doStuffOnPostPersist()
{
$this->value = 'changed from postPersist callback!';
}
/** @PostLoad */
public function doStuffOnPostLoad()
{
$this->value = 'changed from postLoad callback!';
}
/** @PreUpdate */
public function doStuffOnPreUpdate()
{
$this->value = 'changed from preUpdate callback!';
}
}
Note that the methods set as lifecycle callbacks need to be public and, when using these annotations, you have to apply
the @HasLifecycleCallbacks marker annotation on the entity class.
If you want to register lifecycle callbacks from XML it would look something like this:
/Users/robo/dev/php/Doctrine/doctrine-mapping.xsd">

<lifecycle-callbacks>
<lifecycle-callback type="prePersist" method="doStuffOnPrePersist"/>
<lifecycle-callback type="postPersist" method="doStuffOnPostPersist"/>
</lifecycle-callbacks>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
In XML the type of the lifecycle-callback entry is the event that you are triggering on and the method is the method
to call. The allowed event types are the ones listed in the previous Lifecycle Events section.
When using XML you need to remember to create public methods to match the callback names you de-
fined. E.g. in these examples doStuffOnPrePersist(), doOtherStuffOnPrePersist() and
doStuffOnPostPersist() methods need to be defined on your User model.
<?php
// ...
class User
{
// ...
public function doStuffOnPrePersist()

{
// ...
}
public function doOtherStuffOnPrePersist()

{
// ...
}
public function doStuffOnPostPersist()

{
// ...
}
}
Lifecycle Callbacks Event Argument
New in version 2.4.

Since 2.4 the triggered event is given to the lifecycle-callback.
With the additional argument you have access to the EntityManager and UnitOfWork APIs inside these callback
methods.
<?php
// ...
class User
{
public function preUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $event)
{

if ($event->hasChangedField('username')) {
// Do something when the username is changed.
}
}
}
Listening and subscribing to Lifecycle Events
Lifecycle event listeners are much more powerful than the simple lifecycle callbacks that are defined on the entity
classes. They sit at a level above the entities and allow you to implement re-usable behaviors across different entity
classes.
Note that they require much more detailed knowledge about the inner workings of the EntityManager and UnitOfWork.
Please read the Implementing Event Listeners section carefully if you are trying to write your own listener.
For event subscribers, there are no surprises. They declare the lifecycle events in their getSubscribedEvents
method and provide public methods that expect the relevant arguments.
A lifecycle event listener looks like the following:
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs;
class MyEventListener
{
public function preUpdate(LifecycleEventArgs $args)
{
$entity = $args->getObject();
$entityManager = $args->getObjectManager();
// perhaps you only want to act on some "Product" entity

if ($entity instanceof Product) {
// do something with the Product
}
}
}
A lifecycle event subscriber may look like this:
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Events;
use Doctrine\Common\EventSubscriber;
use Doctrine\Common\Persistence\Event\LifecycleEventArgs;
class MyEventSubscriber implements EventSubscriber

{
public function getSubscribedEvents()
{
return array(
Events::postUpdate,
);
}
public function postUpdate(LifecycleEventArgs $args)

{
$entity = $args->getObject();
$entityManager = $args->getObjectManager();

// perhaps you only want to act on some "Product" entity

if ($entity instanceof Product) {
// do something with the Product
}
}
Note: Lifecycle events are triggered for all entities. It is the responsibility of the listeners and subscribers to check if
the entity is of a type it wants to handle.
To register an event listener or subscriber, you have to hook it into the EventManager that is passed to the EntityMan-
ager factory:
<?php
$eventManager = new EventManager();
$eventManager->addEventListener(array(Events::preUpdate), new MyEventListener());
$eventManager->addEventSubscriber(new MyEventSubscriber());
$entityManager = EntityManager::create($dbOpts, $config, $eventManager);
You can also retrieve the event manager instance after the EntityManager was created:
<?php
$entityManager->getEventManager()->addEventListener(array(Events::preUpdate), new
˓→MyEventListener());
$entityManager->getEventManager()->addEventSubscriber(new MyEventSubscriber());
Implementing Event Listeners
This section explains what is and what is not allowed during specific lifecycle events of the UnitOfWork. Although you
get passed the EntityManager in all of these events, you have to follow these restrictions very carefully since operations
in the wrong event may produce lots of different errors, such as inconsistent data and lost updates/persists/removes.
For the described events that are also lifecycle callback events the restrictions apply as well, with the additional
restriction that (prior to version 2.4) you do not have access to the EntityManager or UnitOfWork APIs inside these
events.
prePersist
There are two ways for the prePersist event to be triggered. One is obviously when you call
EntityManager#persist(). The event is also called for all cascaded associations.
There is another way for prePersist to be called, inside the flush() method when changes to associations
are computed and this association is marked as cascade persist. Any new entity found during this operation is also
persisted and prePersist called on it. This is called “persistence by reachability”.
In both cases you get passed a LifecycleEventArgs instance which has access to the entity and the entity
manager.
The following restrictions apply to prePersist:
• If you are using a PrePersist Identity Generator such as sequences the ID value will NOT be available within
any PrePersist events.

• Doctrine will not recognize changes made to relations in a prePersist event. This includes modifications to
collections such as additions, removals or replacement.
preRemove
The preRemove event is called on every entity when its passed to the EntityManager#remove() method. It is
cascaded for all associations that are marked as cascade delete.
There are no restrictions to what methods can be called inside the preRemove event, except when the remove method
itself was called during a flush operation.
preFlush
preFlush is called at EntityManager#flush() before anything else. EntityManager#flush() can be

called safely inside its listeners.
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PreFlushEventArgs;
class PreFlushExampleListener
{
public function preFlush(PreFlushEventArgs $args)
{
// ...
}
}
onFlush
OnFlush is a very powerful event. It is called inside EntityManager#flush() after the changes to all the
managed entities and their associations have been computed. This means, the onFlush event has access to the
sets of:
• Entities scheduled for insert
• Entities scheduled for update
• Entities scheduled for removal
• Collections scheduled for update
• Collections scheduled for removal
To make use of the onFlush event you have to be familiar with the internal UnitOfWork API, which grants you access
to the previously mentioned sets. See this example:
<?php
class FlushExampleListener
{
public function onFlush(OnFlushEventArgs $eventArgs)
{
$em = $eventArgs->getEntityManager();
$uow = $em->getUnitOfWork();
foreach ($uow->getScheduledEntityInsertions() as $entity) {

foreach ($uow->getScheduledEntityUpdates() as $entity) {
foreach ($uow->getScheduledEntityDeletions() as $entity) {
foreach ($uow->getScheduledCollectionDeletions() as $col) {
foreach ($uow->getScheduledCollectionUpdates() as $col) {
}
}
}
The following restrictions apply to the onFlush event:

• If you create and persist a new entity in onFlush, then calling EntityManager#persist() is not enough.
You have to execute an additional call to $unitOfWork->computeChangeSet($classMetadata,
$entity).
• Changing primitive fields or associations requires you to explicitly trigger a re-
computation of the changeset of the affected entity. This can be done by calling
$unitOfWork->recomputeSingleEntityChangeSet($classMetadata, $entity).
postFlush
postFlush is called at the end of EntityManager#flush(). EntityManager#flush() can NOT be

called safely inside its listeners.
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Event\PostFlushEventArgs;
class PostFlushExampleListener
{
public function postFlush(PostFlushEventArgs $args)
{
// ...
}
}
preUpdate
PreUpdate is the most restrictive to use event, since it is called right before an update statement is called for an entity
inside the EntityManager#flush() method. Note that this event is not triggered when the computed changeset
is empty.

Changes to associations of the updated entity are never allowed in this event, since Doctrine cannot guarantee to
correctly handle referential integrity at this point of the flush operation. This event has a powerful feature however, it
is executed with a PreUpdateEventArgs instance, which contains a reference to the computed change-set of this
entity.
This means you have access to all the fields that have changed for this entity with their old and new value. The
following methods are available on the PreUpdateEventArgs:
• getEntity() to get access to the actual entity.
• getEntityChangeSet() to get a copy of the changeset array. Changes to this returned array do not affect
updating.
• hasChangedField($fieldName) to check if the given field name of the current entity changed.
• getOldValue($fieldName) and getNewValue($fieldName) to access the values of a field.
• setNewValue($fieldName, $value) to change the value of a field to be updated.
A simple example for this event looks like:
<?php
class NeverAliceOnlyBobListener
{
public function preUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $eventArgs)
{
if ($eventArgs->getEntity() instanceof User) {
if ($eventArgs->hasChangedField('name') && $eventArgs->getNewValue('name
˓→') == 'Alice') {
$eventArgs->setNewValue('name', 'Bob');
}
}
}
}
You could also use this listener to implement validation of all the fields that have changed. This is more efficient than
using a lifecycle callback when there are expensive validations to call:
<?php
class ValidCreditCardListener
{
public function preUpdate(PreUpdateEventArgs $eventArgs)
{
if ($eventArgs->getEntity() instanceof Account) {
if ($eventArgs->hasChangedField('creditCard')) {
$this->validateCreditCard($eventArgs->getNewValue('creditCard'));
}
}
}
private function validateCreditCard($no)

{
// throw an exception to interrupt flush event. Transaction will be rolled
˓→back.
}
}
Restrictions for this event:

• Changes to associations of the passed entities are not recognized by the flush operation anymore.

• Changes to fields of the passed entities are not recognized by the flush operation anymore,
use the computed change-set passed to the event to modify primitive field values, e.g. use
$eventArgs->setNewValue($field, $value); as in the Alice to Bob example above.
• Any calls to EntityManager#persist() or EntityManager#remove(), even in combination with
the UnitOfWork API are strongly discouraged and don’t work as expected outside the flush operation.
postUpdate, postRemove, postPersist
The three post events are called inside EntityManager#flush(). Changes in here are not relevant to the persis-
tence in the database, but you can use these events to alter non-persistable items, like non-mapped fields, logging or
even associated classes that are not directly mapped by Doctrine.
postLoad
This event is called after an entity is constructed by the EntityManager.
Entity listeners
New in version 2.4.

An entity listener is a lifecycle listener class used for an entity.
• The entity listener’s mapping may be applied to an entity class or mapped superclass.
• An entity listener is defined by mapping the entity class with the corresponding mapping.
• PHP
<?php
namespace MyProject\Entity;
/** @Entity @EntityListeners({"UserListener"}) */

class User
{
// ....
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\Entity\User">
<entity-listeners>
<entity-listener class="UserListener"/>
</entity-listeners>

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Entity listeners class
An Entity Listener could be any class, by default it should be a class with a no-arg constructor.
• Different from Implementing Event Listeners an Entity Listener is invoked just to the specified entity

• An entity listener method receives two arguments, the entity instance and the lifecycle event.
• The callback method can be defined by naming convention or specifying a method mapping.
• When a listener mapping is not given the parser will use the naming convention to look for a matching method,
e.g. it will look for a public preUpdate() method if you are listening to the preUpdate event.
• When a listener mapping is given the parser will not look for any methods using the naming convention.
<?php
class UserListener
{
public function preUpdate(User $user, PreUpdateEventArgs $event)
{
// Do something on pre update.
}
}
To define a specific event listener method (one that does not follow the naming convention) you need to map the
listener method using the event type mapping:
• PHP
<?php
class UserListener
{
/** @PrePersist */
public function prePersistHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { //
˓→... }
/** @PostPersist */
public function postPersistHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { //
˓→ ... }
/** @PreUpdate */
public function preUpdateHandler(User $user, PreUpdateEventArgs $event) { // .
˓→.. }
/** @PostUpdate */
public function postUpdateHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { //
˓→... }
/** @PostRemove */
public function postRemoveHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { //
˓→... }
/** @PreRemove */
public function preRemoveHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // .
˓→.. }
/** @PreFlush */
public function preFlushHandler(User $user, PreFlushEventArgs $event) { // ...
˓→ }
/** @PostLoad */
public function postLoadHandler(User $user, LifecycleEventArgs $event) { // ..
˓→. }
• XML

<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\Entity\User">
<entity-listeners>
<entity-listener class="UserListener">
<lifecycle-callback type="preFlush" method="preFlushHandler"/
˓→>
<lifecycle-callback type="postLoad" method="postLoadHandler"/

˓→>
<lifecycle-callback type="postPersist" method=

˓→"postPersistHandler"/>
<lifecycle-callback type="prePersist" method="prePersistHandler
˓→"/>
<lifecycle-callback type="postUpdate" method="postUpdateHandler

˓→"/>
<lifecycle-callback type="preUpdate" method="preUpdateHandler
˓→"/>
<lifecycle-callback type="postRemove" method="postRemoveHandler

˓→"/>
<lifecycle-callback type="preRemove" method="preRemoveHandler
˓→"/>
</entity-listener>
</entity-listeners>

</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Note: The order of execution of multiple methods for the same event (e.g. multiple @PrePersist) is not guaranteed.
Entity listeners resolver
Doctrine invokes the listener resolver to get the listener instance.

• A resolver allows you register a specific entity listener instance.
• You can also implement your own resolver by extending Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\DefaultEntityListenerResolver
or implementing Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\EntityListenerResolver
Specifying an entity listener instance :
<?php
// User.php
/** @Entity @EntityListeners({"UserListener"}) */

class User
{
// ....
}
// UserListener.php
class UserListener
{
public function __construct(MyService $service)

{
$this->service = $service;
}
public function preUpdate(User $user, PreUpdateEventArgs $event)

{
$this->service->doSomething($user);
}
}
// register a entity listener.

$listener = $container->get('user_listener');
$em->getConfiguration()->getEntityListenerResolver()->register($listener);
Implementing your own resolver :
<?php
class MyEntityListenerResolver extends
˓→\Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\DefaultEntityListenerResolver
{
public function __construct($container)
{
$this->container = $container;
}
public function resolve($className)

{
// resolve the service id by the given class name;
$id = 'user_listener';
return $this->container->get($id);
}
}
// Configure the listener resolver only before instantiating the EntityManager

$configurations->setEntityListenerResolver(new MyEntityListenerResolver);
EntityManager::create(.., $configurations, ..);
Load ClassMetadata Event
When the mapping information for an entity is read, it is populated in to a

Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetadata instance. You can hook in to this process and manipulate
the instance.
<?php
$test = new TestEventListener();
$evm = $em->getEventManager();
$evm->addEventListener(Doctrine\ORM\Events::loadClassMetadata, $test);
class TestEventListener
{
public function loadClassMetadata(\Doctrine\ORM\Event\LoadClassMetadataEventArgs
˓→$eventArgs)
{
$classMetadata = $eventArgs->getClassMetadata();
$fieldMapping = array(

'fieldName' => 'about',

'type' => 'string',
'length' => 255
);
$classMetadata->mapField($fieldMapping);
}
}
SchemaTool Events
It is possible to access the schema metadata during schema changes that are happening in
Doctrine\ORM\Tools\SchemaTool. There are two different events where you can hook in.
postGenerateSchemaTable
This event is fired for each Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Table instance, after one was created and built
up with the current class metadata of an entity. It is possible to access to the current state of
Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Schema, the current table schema instance and class metadata.
<?php
$evm->addEventListener(\Doctrine\ORM\Tools\ToolEvents::postGenerateSchemaTable,
˓→$test);
{
public function
˓→postGenerateSchemaTable(\Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Event\GenerateSchemaTableEventArgs
˓→$eventArgs)
{
$schema = $eventArgs->getSchema();
$table = $eventArgs->getClassTable();
}
}
postGenerateSchema
This event is fired after the schema instance was successfully built and before SQL queries are generated from the
schema information of Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Schema. It allows to access the full object representation of
the database schema and the EntityManager.
<?php
$evm->addEventListener(\Doctrine\ORM\Tools\ToolEvents::postGenerateSchema, $test);
{
public function
˓→postGenerateSchema(\Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Event\GenerateSchemaEventArgs $eventArgs)

$schema = $eventArgs->getSchema();
$em = $eventArgs->getEntityManager();
}
}
9.2.10 Doctrine Internals explained
Object relational mapping is a complex topic and sufficiently understanding how Doctrine works internally helps you
use its full power.
How Doctrine keeps track of Objects
Doctrine uses the Identity Map pattern to track objects. Whenever you fetch an object from the database, Doctrine
will keep a reference to this object inside its UnitOfWork. The array holding all the entity references is two-levels
deep and has the keys “root entity name” and “id”. Since Doctrine allows composite keys the id is a sorted, serialized
version of all the key columns.
This allows Doctrine room for optimizations. If you call the EntityManager and ask for an entity with a specific ID
twice, it will return the same instance:
public function testIdentityMap()

{
$objectA = $this->entityManager->find('EntityName', 1);
$objectB = $this->entityManager->find('EntityName', 1);
$this->assertSame($objectA, $objectB)
}
Only one SELECT query will be fired against the database here. In the second EntityManager#find() call
Doctrine will check the identity map first and doesn’t need to make that database roundtrip.
Even if you get a proxy object first then fetch the object by the same id you will still end up with the same reference:
public function testIdentityMapReference()

{
/* @var $objectA EntityName|\ProxyManager\Proxy\GhostObjectInterface */
$objectA = $this->entityManager->getReference(EntityName::class, 1);
self::assertInstanceOf(\ProxyManager\Proxy\GhostObjectInterface::class, $objectA);
self::assertFalse($objectA->isProxyInitialized());
$objectB = $this->entityManager->find(EntityName::class, 1);
self::assertSame($objectA, $objectB)
}
The identity map being indexed by primary keys only allows shortcuts when you ask for objects by primary key.
Assume you have the following persons table:
id | name
-------------
1 | Benjamin
2 | Bud

Take the following example where two consecutive calls are made against a repository to fetch an entity by a set of
criteria:
public function testIdentityMapRepositoryFindBy()

{
$repository = $this->entityManager->getRepository('Person');
$objectA = $repository->findOneBy(array('name' => 'Benjamin'));
$objectB = $repository->findOneBy(array('name' => 'Benjamin'));
$this->assertSame($objectA, $objectB);
}
This query will still return the same references and $objectA and $objectB are indeed referencing the same object.
However when checking your SQL logs you will realize that two queries have been executed against the database.
Doctrine only knows objects by id, so a query for different criteria has to go to the database, even if it was executed
just before.
But instead of creating a second Person object Doctrine first gets the primary key from the row and check if it already
has an object inside the UnitOfWork with that primary key. In our example it finds an object and decides to return this
instead of creating a new one.
The identity map has a second use-case. When you call EntityManager#flush Doctrine will ask the identity
map for all objects that are currently managed. This means you don’t have to call EntityManager#persist over
and over again to pass known objects to the EntityManager. This is a NO-OP for known entities, but leads to much
code written that is confusing to other developers.
The following code WILL update your database with the changes made to the Person object, even if you did not call
EntityManager#persist:
<?php
$user = $entityManager->find("Person", 1);
$user->setName("Guilherme");
How Doctrine Detects Changes
Doctrine is a data-mapper that tries to achieve persistence-ignorance (PI). This means you map php objects into a
relational database that don’t necessarily know about the database at all. A natural question would now be, “how does
Doctrine even detect objects have changed?”.
For this Doctrine keeps a second map inside the UnitOfWork. Whenever you fetch an object from the database
Doctrine will keep a copy of all the properties and associations inside the UnitOfWork. Because variables in the PHP
language are subject to “copy-on-write” the memory usage of a PHP request that only reads objects from the database
is the same as if Doctrine did not keep this variable copy. Only if you start changing variables PHP will create new
variables internally that consume new memory.
Now whenever you call EntityManager#flush Doctrine will iterate over the Identity Map and for each object
compares the original property and association values with the values that are currently set on the object. If changes
are detected then the object is queued for a SQL UPDATE operation. Only the fields that actually changed are updated.
This process has an obvious performance impact. The larger the size of the UnitOfWork is, the longer this computation
takes. There are several ways to optimize the performance of the Flush Operation:
• Mark entities as read only. These entities can only be inserted or removed, but are never updated. They are
omitted in the changeset calculation.
• Temporarily mark entities as read only. If you have a very large UnitOfWork but
know that a large set of entities has not changed, just mark them as read only with

$entityManager->getUnitOfWork()->markReadOnly($entity).
• Use Change Tracking Policies to use more explicit strategies of notifying the UnitOfWork what ob-
jects/properties changed.
Query Internals
The different ORM Layers
Doctrine ships with a set of layers with different responsibilities. This section gives a short explanation of each layer.
Hydration
Responsible for creating a final result from a raw database statement and a result-set mapping object. The developer
can choose which kind of result he wishes to be hydrated. Default result-types include:
• SQL to Entities
• SQL to structured Arrays
• SQL to simple scalar result arrays
• SQL to a single result variable
Hydration to entities and arrays is one of most complex parts of Doctrine algorithm-wise. It can build results with for
example:
• Single table selects
• Joins with n:1 or 1:n cardinality, grouping belonging to the same parent.
• Mixed results of objects and scalar values
• Hydration of results by a given scalar value as key.
Persisters
tbr
UnitOfWork
tbr
ResultSetMapping
tbr
DQL Parser
tbr

SQLWalker
tbr
EntityManager
tbr
ClassMetadataFactory
tbr
9.2.11 Association Updates: Owning Side and Inverse Side
When mapping bidirectional associations it is important to understand the concept of the owning and inverse sides.
The following general rules apply:
• Relationships may be bidirectional or unidirectional.
• A bidirectional relationship has both an owning side and an inverse side
• A unidirectional relationship only has an owning side.
• Doctrine will only check the owning side of an association for changes.
Bidirectional Associations
The following rules apply to bidirectional associations:

• The inverse side has to have the mappedBy attribute of the OneToOne, OneToMany, or ManyToMany mapping
declaration. The mappedBy attribute contains the name of the association-field on the owning side.
• The owning side has to have the inversedBy attribute of the OneToOne, ManyToOne, or ManyToMany
mapping declaration. The inversedBy attribute contains the name of the association-field on the inverse-side.
• ManyToOne is always the owning side of a bidirectional association.
• OneToMany is always the inverse side of a bidirectional association.
• The owning side of a OneToOne association is the entity with the table containing the foreign key.
• You can pick the owning side of a many-to-many association yourself.
Important concepts
Doctrine will only check the owning side of an association for changes.
To fully understand this, remember how bidirectional associations are maintained in the object world. There are 2
references on each side of the association and these 2 references both represent the same association but can change
independently of one another. Of course, in a correct application the semantics of the bidirectional association are
properly maintained by the application developer (that’s his responsibility). Doctrine needs to know which of these
two in-memory references is the one that should be persisted and which not. This is what the owning/inverse concept
is mainly used for.

Changes made only to the inverse side of an association are ignored. Make sure to update both sides of a
bidirectional association (or at least the owning side, from Doctrine’s point of view)
The owning side of a bidirectional association is the side Doctrine “looks at” when determining the state of the
association, and consequently whether there is anything to do to update the association in the database.
Note: “Owning side” and “inverse side” are technical concepts of the ORM technology, not concepts of your domain
model. What you consider as the owning side in your domain model can be different from what the owning side is for
Doctrine. These are unrelated.
9.2.12 Transactions and Concurrency
Transaction Demarcation
Transaction demarcation is the task of defining your transaction boundaries. Proper transaction demarcation is very
important because if not done properly it can negatively affect the performance of your application. Many databases
and database abstraction layers like PDO by default operate in auto-commit mode, which means that every single SQL
statement is wrapped in a small transaction. Without any explicit transaction demarcation from your side, this quickly
results in poor performance because transactions are not cheap.
For the most part, Doctrine 2 already takes care of proper transaction demarcation for you: All the write operations
(INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE) are queued until EntityManager#flush() is invoked which wraps all of these
changes in a single transaction.
However, Doctrine 2 also allows (and encourages) you to take over and control transaction demarcation yourself.
These are two ways to deal with transactions when using the Doctrine ORM and are now described in more detail.
Approach 1: Implicitly
The first approach is to use the implicit transaction handling provided by the Doctrine ORM EntityManager. Given
the following code snippet, without any explicit transaction demarcation:
<?php
$user = new User;
$user->setName('George');
$em->flush();
Since we do not do any custom transaction demarcation in the above code, EntityManager#flush() will begin
and commit/rollback a transaction. This behavior is made possible by the aggregation of the DML operations by the
Doctrine ORM and is sufficient if all the data manipulation that is part of a unit of work happens through the domain
model and thus the ORM.
Approach 2: Explicitly
The explicit alternative is to use the Doctrine\DBAL\Connection API directly to control the transaction bound-
aries. The code then looks like this:

<?php
$em->getConnection()->beginTransaction(); // suspend auto-commit
try {
//... do some work
$user = new User;
$em->flush();
$em->getConnection()->commit();
} catch (Exception $e) {
$em->getConnection()->rollBack();
throw $e;
}
Explicit transaction demarcation is required when you want to include custom DBAL operations in a unit of work or
when you want to make use of some methods of the EntityManager API that require an active transaction. Such
methods will throw a TransactionRequiredException to inform you of that requirement.
A more convenient alternative for explicit transaction demarcation is the use of provided control abstractions in the
form of Connection#transactional($func) and EntityManager#transactional($func). When
used, these control abstractions ensure that you never forget to rollback the transaction, in addition to the obvious code
reduction. An example that is functionally equivalent to the previously shown code looks as follows:
<?php
$em->transactional(function($em) {
//... do some work
$user = new User;
});
The difference between Connection#transactional($func) and EntityManager#transactional($func)

is that the latter abstraction flushes the EntityManager prior to transaction commit.
Exception Handling
When using implicit transaction demarcation and an exception occurs during EntityManager#flush(), the
transaction is automatically rolled back and the EntityManager closed.
When using explicit transaction demarcation and an exception occurs, the transaction should be rolled back immedi-
ately and the EntityManager closed by invoking EntityManager#close() and subsequently discarded, as
demonstrated in the example above. This can be handled elegantly by the control abstractions shown earlier. Note
that when catching Exception you should generally re-throw the exception. If you intend to recover from some
exceptions, catch them explicitly in earlier catch blocks (but do not forget to rollback the transaction and close the
EntityManager there as well). All other best practices of exception handling apply similarly (i.e. either log or
re-throw, not both, etc.).
As a result of this procedure, all previously managed or removed instances of the EntityManager become detached.
The state of the detached objects will be the state at the point at which the transaction was rolled back. The state of
the objects is in no way rolled back and thus the objects are now out of synch with the database. The application can
continue to use the detached objects, knowing that their state is potentially no longer accurate.
If you intend to start another unit of work after an exception has occurred you should do that with a new
EntityManager.

Locking Support
Doctrine 2 offers support for Pessimistic- and Optimistic-locking strategies natively. This allows to take very fine-
grained control over what kind of locking is required for your Entities in your application.
Optimistic Locking
Database transactions are fine for concurrency control during a single request. However, a database transaction should
not span across requests, the so-called “user think time”. Therefore a long-running “business transaction” that spans
multiple requests needs to involve several database transactions. Thus, database transactions alone can no longer
control concurrency during such a long-running business transaction. Concurrency control becomes the partial re-
sponsibility of the application itself.
Doctrine has integrated support for automatic optimistic locking via a version field. In this approach any entity that
should be protected against concurrent modifications during long-running business transactions gets a version field that
is either a simple number (mapping type: integer) or a timestamp (mapping type: datetime). When changes to such an
entity are persisted at the end of a long-running conversation the version of the entity is compared to the version in the
database and if they don’t match, an OptimisticLockException is thrown, indicating that the entity has been
modified by someone else already.
You designate a version field in an entity as follows. In this example we’ll use an integer.
• PHP
<?php
class User
{
// ...
/** @Version @Column(type="integer") */
private $version;
// ...
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<field name="version" type="integer" version="true" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Alternatively a datetime type can be used (which maps to a SQL timestamp or datetime):
• PHP
<?php
class User
{
// ...
/** @Version @Column(type="datetime") */
private $version;
// ...
}
• XML

<doctrine-mapping>
<field name="version" type="datetime" version="true" />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Version numbers (not timestamps) should however be preferred as they can not potentially conflict in a highly concur-
rent environment, unlike timestamps where this is a possibility, depending on the resolution of the timestamp on the
particular database platform.
When a version conflict is encountered during EntityManager#flush(), an OptimisticLockException
is thrown and the active transaction rolled back (or marked for rollback). This exception can be caught and handled.
Potential responses to an OptimisticLockException are to present the conflict to the user or to refresh or reload objects
in a new transaction and then retrying the transaction.
With PHP promoting a share-nothing architecture, the time between showing an update form and actually modifying
the entity can in the worst scenario be as long as your applications session timeout. If changes happen to the entity in
that time frame you want to know directly when retrieving the entity that you will hit an optimistic locking exception:
You can always verify the version of an entity during a request either when calling EntityManager#find():
<?php
use Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode;
use Doctrine\ORM\OptimisticLockException;
$theEntityId = 1;
$expectedVersion = 184;
try {
$entity = $em->find('User', $theEntityId, LockMode::OPTIMISTIC, $expectedVersion);
// do the work
$em->flush();
} catch(OptimisticLockException $e) {
echo "Sorry, but someone else has already changed this entity. Please apply the
˓→changes again!";
Or you can use EntityManager#lock() to find out:
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\OptimisticLockException;
$theEntityId = 1;
$expectedVersion = 184;
$entity = $em->find('User', $theEntityId);
try {
// assert version
$em->lock($entity, LockMode::OPTIMISTIC, $expectedVersion);
} catch(OptimisticLockException $e) {
echo "Sorry, but someone else has already changed this entity. Please apply the
˓→changes again!";

Important Implementation Notes
You can easily get the optimistic locking workflow wrong if you compare the wrong versions. Say you have Alice and
Bob editing a hypothetical blog post:
• Alice reads the headline of the blog post being “Foo”, at optimistic lock version 1 (GET Request)
• Bob reads the headline of the blog post being “Foo”, at optimistic lock version 1 (GET Request)
• Bob updates the headline to “Bar”, upgrading the optimistic lock version to 2 (POST Request of a Form)
• Alice updates the headline to “Baz”, . . . (POST Request of a Form)
Now at the last stage of this scenario the blog post has to be read again from the database before Alice’s headline can
be applied. At this point you will want to check if the blog post is still at version 1 (which it is not in this scenario).
Using optimistic locking correctly, you have to add the version as an additional hidden field (or into the SESSION for
more safety). Otherwise you cannot verify the version is still the one being originally read from the database when
Alice performed her GET request for the blog post. If this happens you might see lost updates you wanted to prevent
with Optimistic Locking.
See the example code, The form (GET Request):
<?php
$post = $em->find('BlogPost', 123456);
echo '<input type="hidden" name="id" value="' . $post->getId() . '" />';

echo '<input type="hidden" name="version" value="' . $post->getCurrentVersion() . '" /
˓→>';
And the change headline action (POST Request):
<?php
$postId = (int)$_GET['id'];
$postVersion = (int)$_GET['version'];
$post = $em->find('BlogPost', $postId, \Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::OPTIMISTIC,

˓→$postVersion);
Pessimistic Locking
Doctrine 2 supports Pessimistic Locking at the database level. No attempt is being made to implement pessimistic
locking inside Doctrine, rather vendor-specific and ANSI-SQL commands are used to acquire row-level locks. Every
Entity can be part of a pessimistic lock, there is no special metadata required to use this feature.
However for Pessimistic Locking to work you have to disable the Auto-Commit Mode of your Database and start a
transaction around your pessimistic lock use-case using the “Approach 2: Explicit Transaction Demarcation” described
above. Doctrine 2 will throw an Exception if you attempt to acquire an pessimistic lock and no transaction is running.
Doctrine 2 currently supports two pessimistic lock modes:
• Pessimistic Write (Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_WRITE), locks the underlying
database rows for concurrent Read and Write Operations.
• Pessimistic Read (Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_READ), locks other concurrent requests
that attempt to update or lock rows in write mode.
You can use pessimistic locks in three different scenarios:

1. Using EntityManager#find($className, $id, \Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_WRITE)

or EntityManager#find($className, $id, \Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_READ)
2. Using EntityManager#lock($entity, \Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_WRITE)
or EntityManager#lock($entity, \Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_READ)
3. Using Query#setLockMode(\Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_WRITE) or
Query#setLockMode(\Doctrine\DBAL\LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_READ)
9.2.13 Batch Processing
This chapter shows you how to accomplish bulk inserts, updates and deletes with Doctrine in an efficient way. The
main problem with bulk operations is usually not to run out of memory and this is especially what the strategies
presented here provide help with.
Warning: An ORM tool is not primarily well-suited for mass inserts, updates or deletions. Every RDBMS has
its own, most effective way of dealing with such operations and if the options outlined below are not sufficient for
your purposes we recommend you use the tools for your particular RDBMS for these bulk operations.
Bulk Inserts
Bulk inserts in Doctrine are best performed in batches, taking advantage of the transactional write-behind behavior
of an EntityManager. The following code shows an example for inserting 10000 objects with a batch size of 20.
You may need to experiment with the batch size to find the size that works best for you. Larger batch sizes mean more
prepared statement reuse internally but also mean more work during flush.
<?php
$batchSize = 20;
for ($i = 1; $i <= 10000; ++$i) {
$user = new CmsUser;
$user->setStatus('user');
$user->setUsername('user' . $i);
$user->setName('Mr.Smith-' . $i);
if (($i % $batchSize) === 0) {
$em->flush();
$em->clear(); // Detaches all objects from Doctrine!
}
}
$em->flush(); //Persist objects that did not make up an entire batch
$em->clear();
Bulk Updates
There are 2 possibilities for bulk updates with Doctrine.
DQL UPDATE
The by far most efficient way for bulk updates is to use a DQL UPDATE query. Example:

<?php
$q = $em->createQuery('update MyProject\Model\Manager m set m.salary = m.salary * 0.9
˓→');
$numUpdated = $q->execute();
Iterating results
An alternative solution for bulk updates is to use the Query#iterate() facility to iterate over the query results
step by step instead of loading the whole result into memory at once. The following example shows how to do this,
combining the iteration with the batching strategy that was already used for bulk inserts:
<?php
$batchSize = 20;
$i = 0;
$q = $em->createQuery('select u from MyProject\Model\User u');
$iterableResult = $q->iterate();
foreach ($iterableResult as $row) {
$user = $row[0];
$user->increaseCredit();
$user->calculateNewBonuses();
$em->flush(); // Executes all updates.
}
++$i;
}
$em->flush();
Note: Iterating results is not possible with queries that fetch-join a collection-valued association. The nature of such
SQL result sets is not suitable for incremental hydration.
Note: Results may be fully buffered by the database client/ connection allocating additional memory not visible to
the PHP process. For large sets this may easily kill the process for no apparent reason.
Bulk Deletes
There are two possibilities for bulk deletes with Doctrine. You can either issue a single DQL DELETE query or you
can iterate over results removing them one at a time.
DQL DELETE
The by far most efficient way for bulk deletes is to use a DQL DELETE query.
Example:
<?php
$q = $em->createQuery('delete from MyProject\Model\Manager m where m.salary > 100000
˓→');
$numDeleted = $q->execute();

Iterating results
An alternative solution for bulk deletes is to use the Query#iterate() facility to iterate over the query results step
by step instead of loading the whole result into memory at once. The following example shows how to do this:
<?php
$batchSize = 20;
$i = 0;
while (($row = $iterableResult->next()) !== false) {
$em->remove($row[0]);
$em->flush(); // Executes all deletions.
}
++$i;
}
$em->flush();
Iterating Large Results for Data-Processing
You can use the iterate() method just to iterate over a large result and no UPDATE or DELETE intention. The
IterableResult instance returned from $query->iterate() implements the Iterator interface so you can
process a large result without memory problems using the following approach:
<?php
$q = $this->em->createQuery('select u from MyProject\Model\User u');
foreach ($iterableResult as $row) {
// do stuff with the data in the row, $row[0] is always the object
// detach all entities from Doctrine, so that Garbage-Collection can kick in

˓→ immediately
$this->em->clear();
}
Packages for easing Batch Processing
You can implement batch processing yourself, or use an existing package such as DoctrineBatchUtils, which already
provides the logic described above in an encapsulated format.

9.2.14 Doctrine Query Language
DQL stands for Doctrine Query Language and is an Object Query Language derivative that is very similar to the
Hibernate Query Language (HQL) or the Java Persistence Query Language (JPQL).
In essence, DQL provides powerful querying capabilities over your object model. Imagine all your objects lying
around in some storage (like an object database). When writing DQL queries, think about querying that storage to
pick a certain subset of your objects.
Note: A common mistake for beginners is to mistake DQL for being just some form of SQL and therefore trying
to use table names and column names or join arbitrary tables together in a query. You need to think about DQL as a
query language for your object model, not for your relational schema.
DQL is case in-sensitive, except for namespace, class and field names, which are case sensitive.
Types of DQL queries
DQL as a query language has SELECT, UPDATE and DELETE constructs that map to their corresponding SQL
statement types. INSERT statements are not allowed in DQL, because entities and their relations have to be introduced
into the persistence context through EntityManager#persist() to ensure consistency of your object model.
DQL SELECT statements are a very powerful way of retrieving parts of your domain model that are not accessible via
associations. Additionally they allow you to retrieve entities and their associations in one single SQL select statement
which can make a huge difference in performance compared to using several queries.
DQL UPDATE and DELETE statements offer a way to execute bulk changes on the entities of your domain model.
This is often necessary when you cannot load all the affected entities of a bulk update into memory.
SELECT queries
DQL SELECT clause
Here is an example that selects all users with an age > 20:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM MyProject\Model\User u WHERE u.age > 20');
$users = $query->getResult();
Lets examine the query:

• u is a so called identification variable or alias that refers to the MyProject\Model\User class. By placing
this alias in the SELECT clause we specify that we want all instances of the User class that are matched by this
query to appear in the query result.
• The FROM keyword is always followed by a fully-qualified class name which in turn is followed by an identifi-
cation variable or alias for that class name. This class designates a root of our query from which we can navigate
further via joins (explained later) and path expressions.
• The expression u.age in the WHERE clause is a path expression. Path expressions in DQL are easily identified
by the use of the ‘.’ operator that is used for constructing paths. The path expression u.age refers to the age
field on the User class.
The result of this query would be a list of User objects where all users are older than 20.

Result format
The composition of the expressions in the SELECT clause also influences the nature of the query result. There are
three cases:
All objects
SELECT u, p, n FROM Users u...
In this case, the result will be an array of User objects because of the FROM clause, with children p and n hydrated
because of their inclusion in the SELECT clause.
All scalars
SELECT u.name, u.address FROM Users u...
In this case, the result will be an array of arrays. In the example above, each element of the result array would be an
array of the scalar name and address values.
You can select scalars from any entity in the query.
Mixed
``SELECT u, p.quantity FROM Users u...``
Here, the result will again be an array of arrays, with each element being an array made up of a User object and the
scalar value p.quantity.
Multiple FROM clauses are allowed, which would cause the result array elements to cycle through the classes included
in the multiple FROM clauses.
Note: You cannot select other entities unless you also select the root of the selection (which is the first entity in
FROM).
For example, SELECT p,n FROM Users u... would be wrong because u is not part of the SELECT
Doctrine throws an exception if you violate this constraint.
Joins
A SELECT query can contain joins. There are 2 types of JOINs: “Regular” Joins and “Fetch” Joins.
Regular Joins: Used to limit the results and/or compute aggregate values.
Fetch Joins: In addition to the uses of regular joins: Used to fetch related entities and include them in the hydrated
result of a query.
There is no special DQL keyword that distinguishes a regular join from a fetch join. A join (be it an inner or outer
join) becomes a “fetch join” as soon as fields of the joined entity appear in the SELECT part of the DQL query outside
of an aggregate function. Otherwise its a “regular join”.
Example:
Regular join of the address:

<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT u FROM User u JOIN u.address a WHERE a.city =
˓→'Berlin'");
Fetch join of the address:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT u, a FROM User u JOIN u.address a WHERE a.city =
˓→'Berlin'");
When Doctrine hydrates a query with fetch-join it returns the class in the FROM clause on the root level of the
result array. In the previous example an array of User instances is returned and the address of each user is fetched
and hydrated into the User#address variable. If you access the address Doctrine does not need to lazy load the
association with another query.
Note: Doctrine allows you to walk all the associations between all the objects in your domain model. Objects that
were not already loaded from the database are replaced with lazy loading proxy instances. Non-loaded Collections are
also replaced by lazy-loading instances that fetch all the contained objects upon first access. However relying on the
lazy-loading mechanism leads to many small queries executed against the database, which can significantly affect the
performance of your application. Fetch Joins are the solution to hydrate most or all of the entities that you need in a
single SELECT query.
Named and Positional Parameters
DQL supports both named and positional parameters, however in contrast to many SQL dialects positional parameters
are specified with numbers, for example “?1”, “?2” and so on. Named parameters are specified with “:name1”,
“:name2” and so on.
When referencing the parameters in Query#setParameter($param, $value) both named and positional
parameters are used without their prefixes.
DQL SELECT Examples
This section contains a large set of DQL queries and some explanations of what is happening. The actual result also
depends on the hydration mode.
Hydrate all User entities:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM MyProject\Model\User u');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of User objects
Retrieve the IDs of all CmsUsers:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u.id FROM CmsUser u');
$ids = $query->getResult(); // array of CmsUser ids
Retrieve the IDs of all users that have written an article:

<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT DISTINCT u.id FROM CmsArticle a JOIN a.user u');
$ids = $query->getResult(); // array of CmsUser ids
Retrieve all articles and sort them by the name of the articles users instance:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT a FROM CmsArticle a JOIN a.user u ORDER BY u.name
˓→ASC');
$articles = $query->getResult(); // array of CmsArticle objects
Retrieve the Username and Name of a CmsUser:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u.username, u.name FROM CmsUser u');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of CmsUser username and name values
echo $users[0]['username'];
Retrieve a ForumUser and his single associated entity:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u, a FROM ForumUser u JOIN u.avatar a');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of ForumUser objects with the avatar
˓→association loaded
echo get_class($users[0]->getAvatar());
Retrieve a CmsUser and fetch join all the phonenumbers he has:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u, p FROM CmsUser u JOIN u.phonenumbers p');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of CmsUser objects with the phonenumbers
˓→association loaded
$phonenumbers = $users[0]->getPhonenumbers();
Hydrate a result in Ascending:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM ForumUser u ORDER BY u.id ASC');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of ForumUser objects
Or in Descending Order:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM ForumUser u ORDER BY u.id DESC');
Using Aggregate Functions:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT COUNT(u.id) FROM Entities\User u');
$count = $query->getSingleScalarResult();
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u, count(g.id) FROM Entities\User u JOIN u.groups g

˓→GROUP BY u.id');
$result = $query->getResult();
With WHERE Clause and Positional Parameter:

<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM ForumUser u WHERE u.id = ?1');
$query->setParameter(1, 321);
With WHERE Clause and Named Parameter:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM ForumUser u WHERE u.username = :name');
$query->setParameter('name', 'Bob');
With Nested Conditions in WHERE Clause:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM ForumUser u WHERE (u.username = :name OR u.
˓→username = :name2) AND u.id = :id');
$query->setParameters(array(
'name' => 'Bob',
'name2' => 'Alice',
'id' => 321,
));
With COUNT DISTINCT:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT u.name) FROM CmsUser');
With Arithmetic Expression in WHERE clause:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM CmsUser u WHERE ((u.id + 5000) * u.id + 3) <
˓→10000000');
Retrieve user entities with Arithmetic Expression in ORDER clause, using the HIDDEN keyword:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u, u.posts_count + u.likes_count AS HIDDEN score
˓→FROM CmsUser u ORDER BY score');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of User objects
Using a LEFT JOIN to hydrate all user-ids and optionally associated article-ids:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u.id, a.id as article_id FROM CmsUser u LEFT JOIN u.
˓→articles a');
$results = $query->getResult(); // array of user ids and every article_id for each
˓→user
Restricting a JOIN clause by additional conditions specified by WITH:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT u FROM CmsUser u LEFT JOIN u.articles a WITH a.
˓→topic LIKE :foo");

$query->setParameter('foo', '%foo%');
Using several Fetch JOINs:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u, a, p, c FROM CmsUser u JOIN u.articles a JOIN u.
˓→phonenumbers p JOIN a.comments c');
BETWEEN in WHERE clause:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u.name FROM CmsUser u WHERE u.id BETWEEN ?1 AND ?2
˓→');
$usernames = $query->getResult();
DQL Functions in WHERE clause:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT u.name FROM CmsUser u WHERE TRIM(u.name) = 'someone'
˓→");
IN() Expression:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u.name FROM CmsUser u WHERE u.id IN(46)');
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM CmsUser u WHERE u.id IN (1, 2)');

$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM CmsUser u WHERE u.id NOT IN (1)');

CONCAT() DQL Function:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT u.id FROM CmsUser u WHERE CONCAT(u.name, 's') = ?1
˓→");
$query->setParameter(1, 'Jess');
$ids = $query->getResult();
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT CONCAT(u.id, u.name) FROM CmsUser u WHERE u.id = ?1

˓→');
$idUsernames = $query->getResult();
EXISTS in WHERE clause with correlated Subquery
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u.id FROM CmsUser u WHERE EXISTS (SELECT p.
˓→phonenumber FROM CmsPhonenumber p WHERE p.user = u.id)');

Get all users who are members of $group.
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u.id FROM CmsUser u WHERE :groupId MEMBER OF u.
˓→groups');
$query->setParameter('groupId', $group);
Get all users that have more than 1 phonenumber
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM CmsUser u WHERE SIZE(u.phonenumbers) > 1');
Get all users that have no phonenumber
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM CmsUser u WHERE u.phonenumbers IS EMPTY');
Get all instances of a specific type, for use with inheritance hierarchies:
New in version 2.1.
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM Doctrine\Tests\Models\Company\CompanyPerson
˓→u WHERE u INSTANCE OF Doctrine\Tests\Models\Company\CompanyEmployee');

˓→u WHERE u INSTANCE OF ?1');

˓→u WHERE u NOT INSTANCE OF ?1');
Get all users visible on a given website that have chosen certain gender:
New in version 2.2.
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.gender IN (SELECT
˓→IDENTITY(agl.gender) FROM Site s JOIN s.activeGenderList agl WHERE s.id = ?1)');
New in version 2.4.

Starting with 2.4, the IDENTITY() DQL function also works for composite primary keys:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT IDENTITY(c.location, 'latitude') AS latitude,
˓→IDENTITY(c.location, 'longitude') AS longitude FROM Checkpoint c WHERE c.user = ?1
˓→");
Joins between entities without associations were not possible until version 2.4, where you can generate an arbitrary
join with the following syntax:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM User u JOIN Blacklist b WITH u.email = b.
˓→email');
Note: The differences between WHERE, WITH and HAVING clauses may be confusing.
• WHERE is applied to the results of an entire query

• WITH is applied to a join as an additional condition. For arbitrary joins (SELECT f, b FROM Foo f, Bar b
WITH f.id = b.id) the WITH is required, even if it is 1 = 1
• HAVING is applied to the results of a query after aggregation (GROUP BY)
Partial Object Syntax
By default when you run a DQL query in Doctrine and select only a subset of the fields for a given entity, you do not
receive objects back. Instead, you receive only arrays as a flat rectangular result set, similar to how you would if you
were just using SQL directly and joining some data.
If you want to select partial objects you can use the partial DQL keyword:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT partial u.{id, username} FROM CmsUser u');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of partially loaded CmsUser objects
You use the partial syntax when joining as well:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT partial u.{id, username}, partial a.{id, name} FROM
˓→CmsUser u JOIN u.articles a');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of partially loaded CmsUser objects
“NEW” Operator Syntax
New in version 2.4.

Using the NEW operator you can construct Data Transfer Objects (DTOs) directly from DQL queries.
• When using SELECT NEW you don’t need to specify a mapped entity.
• You can specify any PHP class, it only requires that the constructor of this class matches the NEW statement.
• This approach involves determining exactly which columns you really need, and instantiating a data-transfer
object that contains a constructor with those arguments.
If you want to select data-transfer objects you should create a class:
<?php
class CustomerDTO
{
public function __construct($name, $email, $city, $value = null)
{
// Bind values to the object properties.
}
}
And then use the NEW DQL keyword :
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT NEW CustomerDTO(c.name, e.email, a.city) FROM
˓→Customer c JOIN c.email e JOIN c.address a');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of CustomerDTO

<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT NEW CustomerDTO(c.name, e.email, a.city, SUM(o.
˓→value)) FROM Customer c JOIN c.email e JOIN c.address a JOIN c.orders o GROUP BY c
˓→');
$users = $query->getResult(); // array of CustomerDTO
Note that you can only pass scalar expressions to the constructor.
Using INDEX BY
The INDEX BY construct is nothing that directly translates into SQL but that affects object and array hydration. After
each FROM and JOIN clause you specify by which field this class should be indexed in the result. By default a result
is incremented by numerical keys starting with 0. However with INDEX BY you can specify any other column to be
the key of your result, it really only makes sense with primary or unique fields though:
SELECT u.id, u.status, upper(u.name) nameUpper FROM User u INDEX BY u.id

JOIN u.phonenumbers p INDEX BY p.phonenumber
Returns an array of the following kind, indexed by both user-id then phonenumber-id:
array
0 =>
array
1 =>
object(stdClass)[299]
public '__CLASS__' => string 'Doctrine\Tests\Models\CMS\CmsUser' (length=33)
public 'id' => int 1
..
'nameUpper' => string 'ROMANB' (length=6)
1 =>
array
2 =>
object(stdClass)[298]
public '__CLASS__' => string 'Doctrine\Tests\Models\CMS\CmsUser' (length=33)
public 'id' => int 2
...
'nameUpper' => string 'JWAGE' (length=5)
UPDATE queries
DQL not only allows to select your Entities using field names, you can also execute bulk updates on a set of entities
using an DQL-UPDATE query. The Syntax of an UPDATE query works as expected, as the following example shows:
UPDATE MyProject\Model\User u SET u.password = 'new' WHERE u.id IN (1, 2, 3)
References to related entities are only possible in the WHERE clause and using sub-selects.
Warning: DQL UPDATE statements are ported directly into a Database UPDATE statement and therefore
bypass any locking scheme, events and do not increment the version column. Entities that are already loaded
into the persistence context will NOT be synced with the updated database state. It is recommended to call
EntityManager#clear() and retrieve new instances of any affected entity.

DELETE queries
DELETE queries can also be specified using DQL and their syntax is as simple as the UPDATE syntax:
DELETE MyProject\Model\User u WHERE u.id = 4
The same restrictions apply for the reference of related entities.
Warning: DQL DELETE statements are ported directly into a Database DELETE statement and therefore bypass
any events and checks for the version column if they are not explicitly added to the WHERE clause of the query.
Additionally Deletes of specified entities are NOT cascaded to related entities even if specified in the metadata.
Functions, Operators, Aggregates
It is possible to wrap both fields and identification values into aggregation and DQL functions. Numerical fields can
be part of computations using mathematical operations.
DQL Functions
The following functions are supported in SELECT, WHERE and HAVING clauses:
• IDENTITY(single_association_path_expression [, fieldMapping]) - Retrieve the foreign key column of associ-
ation of the owning side
• ABS(arithmetic_expression)
• CONCAT(str1, str2)
• CURRENT_DATE() - Return the current date
• CURRENT_TIME() - Returns the current time
• CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() - Returns a timestamp of the current date and time.
• LENGTH(str) - Returns the length of the given string
• LOCATE(needle, haystack [, offset]) - Locate the first occurrence of the substring in the string.
• LOWER(str) - returns the string lowercased.
• MOD(a, b) - Return a MOD b.
• SIZE(collection) - Return the number of elements in the specified collection
• SQRT(q) - Return the square-root of q.
• SUBSTRING(str, start [, length]) - Return substring of given string.
• TRIM([LEADING | TRAILING | BOTH] [‘trchar’ FROM] str) - Trim the string by the given trim char, defaults
to whitespaces.
• UPPER(str) - Return the upper-case of the given string.
• DATE_ADD(date, days, unit) - Add the number of days to a given date. (Supported units are DAY, MONTH)
• DATE_SUB(date, days, unit) - Substract the number of days from a given date. (Supported units are DAY,
MONTH)
• DATE_DIFF(date1, date2) - Calculate the difference in days between date1-date2.

Arithmetic operators
You can do math in DQL using numeric values, for example:
SELECT person.salary * 1.5 FROM CompanyPerson person WHERE person.salary < 100000
Aggregate Functions
The following aggregate functions are allowed in SELECT and GROUP BY clauses: AVG, COUNT, MIN, MAX,
SUM
Other Expressions
DQL offers a wide-range of additional expressions that are known from SQL, here is a list of all the supported con-
structs:
• ALL/ANY/SOME - Used in a WHERE clause followed by a sub-select this works like the equivalent constructs
in SQL.
• BETWEEN a AND b and NOT BETWEEN a AND b can be used to match ranges of arithmetic values.
• IN (x1, x2, ...) and NOT IN (x1, x2, ..) can be used to match a set of given values.
• LIKE .. and NOT LIKE .. match parts of a string or text using % as a wildcard.
• IS NULL and IS NOT NULL to check for null values
• EXISTS and NOT EXISTS in combination with a sub-select
Adding your own functions to the DQL language
By default DQL comes with functions that are part of a large basis of underlying databases. However you will most
likely choose a database platform at the beginning of your project and most likely never change it. For this cases you
can easily extend the DQL parser with own specialized platform functions.
You can register custom DQL functions in your ORM Configuration:
<?php
$config = new \Doctrine\ORM\Configuration();
$config->addCustomStringFunction($name, $class);
$config->addCustomNumericFunction($name, $class);
$config->addCustomDatetimeFunction($name, $class);
$em = EntityManager::create($dbParams, $config);
The functions have to return either a string, numeric or datetime value depending on the registered function type. As
an example we will add a MySQL specific FLOOR() functionality. All the given classes have to implement the base
class :
<?php
namespace MyProject\Query\AST;
use \Doctrine\ORM\Query\AST\Functions\FunctionNode;
use \Doctrine\ORM\Query\Lexer;

class MysqlFloor extends FunctionNode

{
public $simpleArithmeticExpression;
public function getSql(\Doctrine\ORM\Query\SqlWalker $sqlWalker)

{
return 'FLOOR(' . $sqlWalker->walkSimpleArithmeticExpression(
$this->simpleArithmeticExpression
) . ')';
}
public function parse(\Doctrine\ORM\Query\Parser $parser)

{
$parser->match(Lexer::T_IDENTIFIER);
$parser->match(Lexer::T_OPEN_PARENTHESIS);
$this->simpleArithmeticExpression = $parser->SimpleArithmeticExpression();
$parser->match(Lexer::T_CLOSE_PARENTHESIS);
}
}
We will register the function by calling and can then use it:
<?php
$config = $em->getConfiguration();
$config->registerNumericFunction('FLOOR', 'MyProject\Query\MysqlFloor');
$dql = "SELECT FLOOR(person.salary * 1.75) FROM CompanyPerson person";
Querying Inherited Classes
This section demonstrates how you can query inherited classes and what type of results to expect.
Single Table
Single Table Inheritance is an inheritance mapping strategy where all classes of a hierarchy are mapped to a single
database table. In order to distinguish which row represents which type in the hierarchy a so-called discriminator
column is used.
First we need to setup an example set of entities to use. In this scenario it is a generic Person and Employee example:
<?php
namespace Entities;
/**
* @Entity
*/
class Person
{
/**
* @Id @Column(type="integer")

* @GeneratedValue
*/
protected $id;
/**
*/
protected $name;
// ...
}
/**
* @Entity
*/
{
/**
*/
private $department;
// ...
}
First notice that the generated SQL to create the tables for these entities looks like the following:
CREATE TABLE Person (

id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
discr VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
department VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
)
Now when persist a new Employee instance it will set the discriminator value for us automatically:
<?php
$employee = new \Entities\Employee();
$employee->setName('test');
$employee->setDepartment('testing');
$em->persist($employee);
$em->flush();
Now lets run a simple query to retrieve the Employee we just created:
SELECT e FROM Entities\Employee e WHERE e.name = 'test'
If we check the generated SQL you will notice it has some special conditions added to ensure that we will only get
back Employee entities:
SELECT p0_.id AS id0, p0_.name AS name1, p0_.department AS department2,

p0_.discr AS discr3 FROM Person p0_
WHERE (p0_.name = ?) AND p0_.discr IN ('employee')

Class Table Inheritance
Class Table Inheritance is an inheritance mapping strategy where each class in a hierarchy is mapped to several tables:
its own table and the tables of all parent classes. The table of a child class is linked to the table of a parent class through
a foreign key constraint. Doctrine 2 implements this strategy through the use of a discriminator column in the topmost
table of the hierarchy because this is the easiest way to achieve polymorphic queries with Class Table Inheritance.
The example for class table inheritance is the same as single table, you just need to change the inheritance type from
SINGLE_TABLE to JOINED:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
*/
class Person
{
// ...
}
Now take a look at the SQL which is generated to create the table, you’ll notice some differences:
CREATE TABLE Person (

name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
discr VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE Employee (
id INT NOT NULL,
department VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
) ENGINE = InnoDB;
ALTER TABLE Employee ADD FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES Person(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
• The data is split between two tables

• A foreign key exists between the two tables
Now if were to insert the same Employee as we did in the SINGLE_TABLE example and run the same example
query it will generate different SQL joining the Person information automatically for you:
SELECT p0_.id AS id0, p0_.name AS name1, e1_.department AS department2,

p0_.discr AS discr3
FROM Employee e1_ INNER JOIN Person p0_ ON e1_.id = p0_.id
WHERE p0_.name = ?
The Query class
An instance of the Doctrine\ORM\Query class represents a DQL query. You create a Query instance be calling
EntityManager#createQuery($dql), passing the DQL query string. Alternatively you can create an empty
Query instance and invoke Query#setDQL($dql) afterwards. Here are some examples:
<?php

// example1: passing a DQL string

// example2: using setDQL

$q = $em->createQuery();
$q->setDQL('select u from MyProject\Model\User u');
Query Result Formats
The format in which the result of a DQL SELECT query is returned can be influenced by a so-called hydration
mode. A hydration mode specifies a particular way in which a SQL result set is transformed. Each hydration mode
has its own dedicated method on the Query class. Here they are:
• Query#getResult(): Retrieves a collection of objects. The result is either a plain collection of objects
(pure) or an array where the objects are nested in the result rows (mixed).
• Query#getSingleResult(): Retrieves a single object. If the result contains more than one object, an
NonUniqueResultException is thrown. If the result contains no objects, an NoResultException is
thrown. The pure/mixed distinction does not apply.
• Query#getOneOrNullResult(): Retrieve a single object. If no object is found null will be returned.
• Query#getArrayResult(): Retrieves an array graph (a nested array) that is largely interchangeable with
the object graph generated by Query#getResult() for read-only purposes.
Note: An array graph can differ from the corresponding object graph in certain scenarios due to the
difference of the identity semantics between arrays and objects.
• Query#getScalarResult(): Retrieves a flat/rectangular result set of scalar values that can contain dupli-
cate data. The pure/mixed distinction does not apply.
• Query#getSingleScalarResult(): Retrieves a single scalar value from the result returned by the dbms.
If the result contains more than a single scalar value, an exception is thrown. The pure/mixed distinction does
not apply.
Instead of using these methods, you can alternatively use the general-purpose method Query#execute(array
$params = array(), $hydrationMode = Query::HYDRATE_OBJECT). Using this method you can
directly supply the hydration mode as the second parameter via one of the Query constants. In fact, the methods men-
tioned earlier are just convenient shortcuts for the execute method. For example, the method Query#getResult()
internally invokes execute, passing in Query::HYDRATE_OBJECT as the hydration mode.
The use of the methods mentioned earlier is generally preferred as it leads to more concise code.
Pure and Mixed Results
The nature of a result returned by a DQL SELECT query retrieved through Query#getResult() or
Query#getArrayResult() can be of 2 forms: pure and mixed. In the previous simple examples, you already
saw a “pure” query result, with only objects. By default, the result type is pure but as soon as scalar values, such as
aggregate values or other scalar values that do not belong to an entity, appear in the SELECT part of the DQL
query, the result becomes mixed. A mixed result has a different structure than a pure result in order to accommodate
for the scalar values.
A pure result usually looks like this:

$dql = "SELECT u FROM User u";
array
[0] => Object
[1] => Object
[2] => Object
...
A mixed result on the other hand has the following general structure:
$dql = "SELECT u, 'some scalar string', count(g.id) AS num FROM User u JOIN u.groups
˓→g GROUP BY u.id";
array
[0]
[0] => Object
[1] => "some scalar string"
['num'] => 42
// ... more scalar values, either indexed numerically or with a name
[1]
[0] => Object
[1] => "some scalar string"
['num'] => 42
// ... more scalar values, either indexed numerically or with a name
To better understand mixed results, consider the following DQL query:

SELECT u, UPPER(u.name) nameUpper FROM MyProject\Model\User u
This query makes use of the UPPER DQL function that returns a scalar value and because there is now a scalar value
in the SELECT clause, we get a mixed result.
Conventions for mixed results are as follows:
• The object fetched in the FROM clause is always positioned with the key ‘0’.
• Every scalar without a name is numbered in the order given in the query, starting with 1.
• Every aliased scalar is given with its alias-name as the key. The case of the name is kept.
• If several objects are fetched from the FROM clause they alternate every row.
Here is how the result could look like:
array
array
[0] => User (Object)
['nameUpper'] => "ROMAN"
array
['nameUpper'] => "JONATHAN"
...
And here is how you would access it in PHP code:

<?php
foreach ($results as $row) {
echo "Name: " . $row[0]->getName();
echo "Name UPPER: " . $row['nameUpper'];
}

Fetching Multiple FROM Entities
If you fetch multiple entities that are listed in the FROM clause then the hydration will return the rows iterating the
different top-level entities.
$dql = "SELECT u, g FROM User u, Group g";
array
[0] => Object (User)
[1] => Object (Group)
[2] => Object (User)
[3] => Object (Group)
Hydration Modes
Each of the Hydration Modes makes assumptions about how the result is returned to user land. You should know about
all the details to make best use of the different result formats:
The constants for the different hydration modes are:
• Query::HYDRATE_OBJECT
• Query::HYDRATE_ARRAY
• Query::HYDRATE_SCALAR
• Query::HYDRATE_SINGLE_SCALAR
Object Hydration
Object hydration hydrates the result set into the object graph:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM CmsUser u');
$users = $query->getResult(Query::HYDRATE_OBJECT);
Sometimes the behavior in the object hydrator can be confusing, which is why we are listing as many of the assump-
tions here for reference:
• Objects fetched in a FROM clause are returned as a Set, that means every object is only ever included in the
resulting array once. This is the case even when using JOIN or GROUP BY in ways that return the same row
for an object multiple times. If the hydrator sees the same object multiple times, then it makes sure it is only
returned once.
• If an object is already in memory from a previous query of any kind, then then the previous object is used, even
if the database may contain more recent data. Data from the database is discarded. This even happens if the
previous object is still an unloaded proxy.
This list might be incomplete.
Array Hydration
You can run the same query with array hydration and the result set is hydrated into an array that represents the object
graph:

<?php
$users = $query->getResult(Query::HYDRATE_ARRAY);
You can use the getArrayResult() shortcut as well:
<?php
$users = $query->getArrayResult();
Scalar Hydration
If you want to return a flat rectangular result set instead of an object graph you can use scalar hydration:
<?php
$users = $query->getResult(Query::HYDRATE_SCALAR);
echo $users[0]['u_id'];
The following assumptions are made about selected fields using Scalar Hydration:
1. Fields from classes are prefixed by the DQL alias in the result. A query of the kind ‘SELECT u.name ..’ returns
a key ‘u_name’ in the result rows.
Single Scalar Hydration
If you have a query which returns just a single scalar value you can use single scalar hydration:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT COUNT(a.id) FROM CmsUser u LEFT JOIN u.articles a
˓→WHERE u.username = ?1 GROUP BY u.id');
$query->setParameter(1, 'jwage');
$numArticles = $query->getResult(Query::HYDRATE_SINGLE_SCALAR);
You can use the getSingleScalarResult() shortcut as well:
<?php
$numArticles = $query->getSingleScalarResult();
Custom Hydration Modes
You can easily add your own custom hydration modes by first creating a class which extends AbstractHydrator:
<?php
namespace MyProject\Hydrators;
use Doctrine\DBAL\FetchMode;
use Doctrine\ORM\Internal\Hydration\AbstractHydrator;
class CustomHydrator extends AbstractHydrator

{
protected function _hydrateAll()
{
return $this->stmt->fetchAll(FetchMode::Associative);

}
}
Next you just need to add the class to the ORM configuration:
<?php
$em->getConfiguration()->addCustomHydrationMode('CustomHydrator',
˓→'MyProject\Hydrators\CustomHydrator');
Now the hydrator is ready to be used in your queries:
<?php
$results = $query->getResult('CustomHydrator');
Iterating Large Result Sets
There are situations when a query you want to execute returns a very large result-set that needs to be processed. All
the previously described hydration modes completely load a result-set into memory which might not be feasible with
large result sets. See the Batch Processing section on details how to iterate large result sets.
Functions
The following methods exist on the AbstractQuery which both Query and NativeQuery extend from.
Parameters
Prepared Statements that use numerical or named wildcards require additional parameters to be executable against the
database. To pass parameters to the query the following methods can be used:
• AbstractQuery::setParameter($param, $value) - Set the numerical or named wildcard to the
given value.
• AbstractQuery::setParameters(array $params) - Set an array of parameter key-value pairs.
• AbstractQuery::getParameter($param)
• AbstractQuery::getParameters()
Both named and positional parameters are passed to these methods without their ? or : prefix.
Cache related API
You can cache query results based either on all variables that define the result (SQL, Hydration Mode, Parameters and
Hints) or on user-defined cache keys. However by default query results are not cached at all. You have to enable the
result cache on a per query basis. The following example shows a complete workflow using the Result Cache API:
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('SELECT u FROM MyProject\Model\User u WHERE u.id = ?1');
$query->setResultCacheDriver(new ApcCache());

$query->useResultCache(true)
->setResultCacheLifeTime($seconds = 3600);
$result = $query->getResult(); // cache miss
$query->expireResultCache(true);
$result = $query->getResult(); // forced expire, cache miss
$query->setResultCacheId('my_query_result');
$result = $query->getResult(); // saved in given result cache id.
// or call useResultCache() with all parameters:

$query->useResultCache(true, $seconds = 3600, 'my_query_result');
$result = $query->getResult(); // cache hit!
// Introspection
$queryCacheProfile = $query->getQueryCacheProfile();
$cacheDriver = $query->getResultCacheDriver();
$lifetime = $query->getLifetime();
$key = $query->getCacheKey();
Note: You can set the Result Cache Driver globally on the Doctrine\ORM\Configuration instance so that it
is passed to every Query and NativeQuery instance.
Query Hints
You can pass hints to the query parser and hydrators by using the AbstractQuery::setHint($name,
$value) method. Currently there exist mostly internal query hints that are not be consumed in userland. How-
ever the following few hints are to be used in userland:
• Query::HINT_FORCE_PARTIAL_LOAD - Allows to hydrate objects although not all their columns are fetched.
This query hint can be used to handle memory consumption problems with large result-sets that contain char or
binary data. Doctrine has no way of implicitly reloading this data. Partially loaded objects have to be passed to
EntityManager::refresh() if they are to be reloaded fully from the database.
• Query::HINT_REFRESH - This query is used internally by EntityManager::refresh() and can be used
in userland as well. If you specify this hint and a query returns the data for an entity that is already managed
by the UnitOfWork, the fields of the existing entity will be refreshed. In normal operation a result-set that loads
data of an already existing entity is discarded in favor of the already existing entity.
• Query::HINT_CUSTOM_TREE_WALKERS - An array of additional Doctrine\ORM\Query\TreeWalker
instances that are attached to the DQL query parsing process.
Query Cache (DQL Query Only)
Parsing a DQL query and converting it into a SQL query against the underlying database platform obviously has
some overhead in contrast to directly executing Native SQL queries. That is why there is a dedicated Query Cache
for caching the DQL parser results. In combination with the use of wildcards you can reduce the number of parsed
queries in production to zero.
The Query Cache Driver is passed from the Doctrine\ORM\Configuration instance to each
Doctrine\ORM\Query instance by default and is also enabled by default. This also means you don’t regularly
need to fiddle with the parameters of the Query Cache, however if you do there are several methods to interact with it:

• Query::setQueryCacheDriver($driver) - Allows to set a Cache instance

• Query::setQueryCacheLifeTime($seconds = 3600) - Set lifetime of the query caching.
• Query::expireQueryCache($bool) - Enforce the expiring of the query cache if set to true.
• Query::getExpireQueryCache()
• Query::getQueryCacheDriver()
• Query::getQueryCacheLifeTime()
First and Max Result Items (DQL Query Only)
You can limit the number of results returned from a DQL query as well as specify the starting offset, Doctrine then
uses a strategy of manipulating the select query to return only the requested number of results:
• Query::setMaxResults($maxResults)
• Query::setFirstResult($offset)
Note: If your query contains a fetch-joined collection specifying the result limit methods are not working as you
would expect. Set Max Results restricts the number of database result rows, however in the case of fetch-joined
collections one root entity might appear in many rows, effectively hydrating less than the specified number of results.
Temporarily change fetch mode in DQL
While normally all your associations are marked as lazy or extra lazy you will have cases where you are using DQL
and don’t want to fetch join a second, third or fourth level of entities into your result, because of the increased cost
of the SQL JOIN. You can mark a many-to-one or one-to-one association as fetched temporarily to batch fetch these
entities using a WHERE .. IN query.
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT u FROM MyProject\User u");
$query->setFetchMode("MyProject\User", "address",
˓→\Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\FetchMode::EAGER);
$query->execute();
Given that there are 10 users and corresponding addresses in the database the executed queries will look something
like:
SELECT * FROM users;

SELECT * FROM address WHERE id IN (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10);
Note: Changing the fetch mode during a query mostly makes sense for one-to-one and many-to-one relations. In that
case, all the necessary IDs are available after the root entity (user in the above example) has been loaded. So, one
query per association can be executed to fetch all the referred-to entities (address).
For one-to-many relations, changing the fetch mode to eager will cause to execute one query for every root entity
loaded. This gives no improvement over the lazy fetch mode which will also initialize the associations on a one-by-
one basis once they are accessed.

EBNF
The following context-free grammar, written in an EBNF variant, describes the Doctrine Query Language. You can
consult this grammar whenever you are unsure about what is possible with DQL or what the correct syntax for a
particular query should be.
Document syntax:
• non-terminals begin with an upper case character

• terminals begin with a lower case character
• parentheses (. . . ) are used for grouping
• square brackets [. . . ] are used for defining an optional part, e.g. zero or one time
• curly brackets {. . . } are used for repetition, e.g. zero or more times
• double quotation marks “. . . ” define a terminal string
• a vertical bar | represents an alternative
Terminals
• identifier (name, email, . . . ) must match [a-z_][a-z0-9_]*

• fully_qualified_name (DoctrineTestsModelsCMSCmsUser) matches PHP’s fully qualified class names
• string (‘foo’, ‘bar”s house’, ‘%ninja%’, . . . )
• char (‘/’, ‘’, ‘ ‘, . . . )
• integer (-1, 0, 1, 34, . . . )
• float (-0.23, 0.007, 1.245342E+8, . . . )
• boolean (false, true)
Query Language
QueryLanguage ::= SelectStatement | UpdateStatement | DeleteStatement
Statements
SelectStatement ::= SelectClause FromClause [WhereClause] [GroupByClause]

˓→[HavingClause] [OrderByClause]
UpdateStatement ::= UpdateClause [WhereClause]

DeleteStatement ::= DeleteClause [WhereClause]
Identifiers

/* Alias Identification usage (the "u" of "u.name") */

IdentificationVariable ::= identifier
/* Alias Identification declaration (the "u" of "FROM User u") */

AliasIdentificationVariable :: = identifier
/* identifier that must be a class name (the "User" of "FROM User u"), possibly as a
˓→fully qualified class name or namespace-aliased */
AbstractSchemaName ::= fully_qualified_name | identifier
/* Alias ResultVariable declaration (the "total" of "COUNT(*) AS total") */

AliasResultVariable = identifier
/* ResultVariable identifier usage of mapped field aliases (the "total" of "COUNT(*)

˓→AS total") */
ResultVariable = identifier
/* identifier that must be a field (the "name" of "u.name") */

/* This is responsible to know if the field exists in Object, no matter if it's a
˓→relation or a simple field */
FieldIdentificationVariable ::= identifier
/* identifier that must be a collection-valued association field (to-many) (the

˓→"Phonenumbers" of "u.Phonenumbers") */
CollectionValuedAssociationField ::= FieldIdentificationVariable
/* identifier that must be a single-valued association field (to-one) (the "Group" of

˓→"u.Group") */
SingleValuedAssociationField ::= FieldIdentificationVariable
/* identifier that must be an embedded class state field */

EmbeddedClassStateField ::= FieldIdentificationVariable
/* identifier that must be a simple state field (name, email, ...) (the "name" of "u.
˓→name") */
/* The difference between this and FieldIdentificationVariable is only semantical,

˓→because it points to a single field (not mapping to a relation) */
SimpleStateField ::= FieldIdentificationVariable
Path Expressions
/* "u.Group" or "u.Phonenumbers" declarations */

JoinAssociationPathExpression ::= IdentificationVariable "."
˓→(CollectionValuedAssociationField | SingleValuedAssociationField)
/* "u.Group" or "u.Phonenumbers" usages */

AssociationPathExpression ::= CollectionValuedPathExpression |
˓→SingleValuedAssociationPathExpression
/* "u.name" or "u.Group" */
SingleValuedPathExpression ::= StateFieldPathExpression |
˓→SingleValuedAssociationPathExpression
/* "u.name" or "u.Group.name" */
StateFieldPathExpression ::= IdentificationVariable "." StateField

/* "u.Group" */
SingleValuedAssociationPathExpression ::= IdentificationVariable "."
˓→SingleValuedAssociationField
/* "u.Group.Permissions" */
CollectionValuedPathExpression ::= IdentificationVariable "."
˓→CollectionValuedAssociationField
/* "name" */
StateField ::= {EmbeddedClassStateField "."}*
˓→SimpleStateField
Clauses
SelectClause ::= "SELECT" ["DISTINCT"] SelectExpression {"," SelectExpression}*

SimpleSelectClause ::= "SELECT" ["DISTINCT"] SimpleSelectExpression
UpdateClause ::= "UPDATE" AbstractSchemaName ["AS"]
˓→AliasIdentificationVariable "SET" UpdateItem {"," UpdateItem}*
DeleteClause ::= "DELETE" ["FROM"] AbstractSchemaName ["AS"]

˓→AliasIdentificationVariable
FromClause ::= "FROM" IdentificationVariableDeclaration {","

˓→IdentificationVariableDeclaration}*
SubselectFromClause ::= "FROM" SubselectIdentificationVariableDeclaration {","

˓→SubselectIdentificationVariableDeclaration}*
WhereClause ::= "WHERE" ConditionalExpression

HavingClause ::= "HAVING" ConditionalExpression
GroupByClause ::= "GROUP" "BY" GroupByItem {"," GroupByItem}*
OrderByClause ::= "ORDER" "BY" OrderByItem {"," OrderByItem}*
Subselect ::= SimpleSelectClause SubselectFromClause [WhereClause]
˓→[GroupByClause] [HavingClause] [OrderByClause]
Items
UpdateItem ::= SingleValuedPathExpression "=" NewValue

OrderByItem ::= (SimpleArithmeticExpression | SingleValuedPathExpression |
˓→ScalarExpression | ResultVariable | FunctionDeclaration) ["ASC" | "DESC"]
GroupByItem ::= IdentificationVariable | ResultVariable | SingleValuedPathExpression

NewValue ::= SimpleArithmeticExpression | "NULL"
From, Join and Index by
IdentificationVariableDeclaration ::= RangeVariableDeclaration [IndexBy]

˓→{Join}*
SubselectIdentificationVariableDeclaration ::= IdentificationVariableDeclaration

RangeVariableDeclaration ::= AbstractSchemaName ["AS"]
˓→AliasIdentificationVariable
JoinAssociationDeclaration ::= JoinAssociationPathExpression ["AS"]

˓→AliasIdentificationVariable [IndexBy]
Join ::= ["LEFT" ["OUTER"] | "INNER"] "JOIN"

˓→(JoinAssociationDeclaration | RangeVariableDeclaration) ["WITH"
˓→ConditionalExpression]
IndexBy ::= "INDEX" "BY" StateFieldPathExpression

Select Expressions
SelectExpression ::= (IdentificationVariable | ScalarExpression |

˓→AggregateExpression | FunctionDeclaration | PartialObjectExpression | "(" Subselect
˓→")" | CaseExpression | NewObjectExpression) [["AS"] ["HIDDEN"] AliasResultVariable]
SimpleSelectExpression ::= (StateFieldPathExpression | IdentificationVariable |

˓→FunctionDeclaration | AggregateExpression | "(" Subselect ")" | ScalarExpression) [[
˓→"AS"] AliasResultVariable]
PartialObjectExpression ::= "PARTIAL" IdentificationVariable "." PartialFieldSet

PartialFieldSet ::= "{" SimpleStateField {"," SimpleStateField}* "}"
NewObjectExpression ::= "NEW" AbstractSchemaName "(" NewObjectArg {","
˓→NewObjectArg}* ")"
NewObjectArg ::= ScalarExpression | "(" Subselect ")"
Conditional Expressions
ConditionalExpression ::= ConditionalTerm {"OR" ConditionalTerm}*

ConditionalTerm ::= ConditionalFactor {"AND" ConditionalFactor}*
ConditionalFactor ::= ["NOT"] ConditionalPrimary
ConditionalPrimary ::= SimpleConditionalExpression | "("
˓→ConditionalExpression ")"
SimpleConditionalExpression ::= ComparisonExpression | BetweenExpression |

˓→LikeExpression |
InExpression | NullComparisonExpression |
˓→ ExistsExpression |
EmptyCollectionComparisonExpression |
˓→ CollectionMemberExpression |
InstanceOfExpression
Collection Expressions
EmptyCollectionComparisonExpression ::= CollectionValuedPathExpression "IS" ["NOT"]

˓→"EMPTY"
CollectionMemberExpression ::= EntityExpression ["NOT"] "MEMBER" ["OF"]

˓→CollectionValuedPathExpression
Literal Values
Literal ::= string | char | integer | float | boolean

InParameter ::= Literal | InputParameter
Input Parameter
InputParameter ::= PositionalParameter | NamedParameter

PositionalParameter ::= "?" integer
NamedParameter ::= ":" string

Arithmetic Expressions
ArithmeticExpression ::= SimpleArithmeticExpression | "(" Subselect ")"

SimpleArithmeticExpression ::= ArithmeticTerm {("+" | "-") ArithmeticTerm}*
ArithmeticTerm ::= ArithmeticFactor {("*" | "/") ArithmeticFactor}*
ArithmeticFactor ::= [("+" | "-")] ArithmeticPrimary
ArithmeticPrimary ::= SingleValuedPathExpression | Literal | "("
˓→SimpleArithmeticExpression ")"
| FunctionsReturningNumerics | AggregateExpression |
˓→FunctionsReturningStrings
| FunctionsReturningDatetime | IdentificationVariable
˓→| ResultVariable
| InputParameter | CaseExpression
Scalar and Type Expressions
ScalarExpression ::= SimpleArithmeticExpression | StringPrimary |

˓→DateTimePrimary | StateFieldPathExpression | BooleanPrimary | CaseExpression |
˓→InstanceOfExpression
StringExpression ::= StringPrimary | ResultVariable | "(" Subselect ")"

StringPrimary ::= StateFieldPathExpression | string | InputParameter |
˓→FunctionsReturningStrings | AggregateExpression | CaseExpression
BooleanExpression ::= BooleanPrimary | "(" Subselect ")"

BooleanPrimary ::= StateFieldPathExpression | boolean | InputParameter
EntityExpression ::= SingleValuedAssociationPathExpression |
˓→SimpleEntityExpression
SimpleEntityExpression ::= IdentificationVariable | InputParameter

DatetimeExpression ::= DatetimePrimary | "(" Subselect ")"
DatetimePrimary ::= StateFieldPathExpression | InputParameter |
˓→FunctionsReturningDatetime | AggregateExpression
Note: Parts of CASE expressions are not yet implemented.
Aggregate Expressions
AggregateExpression ::= ("AVG" | "MAX" | "MIN" | "SUM" | "COUNT") "(" ["DISTINCT"]

˓→SimpleArithmeticExpression ")"
Case Expressions
CaseExpression ::= GeneralCaseExpression | SimpleCaseExpression |

˓→CoalesceExpression | NullifExpression
GeneralCaseExpression ::= "CASE" WhenClause {WhenClause}* "ELSE" ScalarExpression "END

˓→"
WhenClause ::= "WHEN" ConditionalExpression "THEN" ScalarExpression

SimpleCaseExpression ::= "CASE" CaseOperand SimpleWhenClause {SimpleWhenClause}*
˓→"ELSE" ScalarExpression "END"
CaseOperand ::= StateFieldPathExpression | TypeDiscriminator

SimpleWhenClause ::= "WHEN" ScalarExpression "THEN" ScalarExpression

CoalesceExpression ::= "COALESCE" "(" ScalarExpression {"," ScalarExpression}* ")"

NullifExpression ::= "NULLIF" "(" ScalarExpression "," ScalarExpression ")"
Other Expressions
QUANTIFIED/BETWEEN/COMPARISON/LIKE/NULL/EXISTS
QuantifiedExpression ::= ("ALL" | "ANY" | "SOME") "(" Subselect ")"
BetweenExpression ::= ArithmeticExpression ["NOT"] "BETWEEN"
˓→ArithmeticExpression "AND" ArithmeticExpression
ComparisonExpression ::= ArithmeticExpression ComparisonOperator (

˓→QuantifiedExpression | ArithmeticExpression )
InExpression ::= SingleValuedPathExpression ["NOT"] "IN" "(" (InParameter

˓→{"," InParameter}* | Subselect) ")"
InstanceOfExpression ::= IdentificationVariable ["NOT"] "INSTANCE" ["OF"]

˓→(InstanceOfParameter | "(" InstanceOfParameter {"," InstanceOfParameter}* ")")
InstanceOfParameter ::= AbstractSchemaName | InputParameter

LikeExpression ::= StringExpression ["NOT"] "LIKE" StringPrimary ["ESCAPE"
˓→char]
NullComparisonExpression ::= (InputParameter | NullIfExpression | CoalesceExpression

˓→| AggregateExpression | FunctionDeclaration | IdentificationVariable |
˓→SingleValuedPathExpression | ResultVariable) "IS" ["NOT"] "NULL"
ExistsExpression ::= ["NOT"] "EXISTS" "(" Subselect ")"

ComparisonOperator ::= "=" | "<" | "<=" | "<>" | ">" | ">=" | "!="
Functions
FunctionDeclaration ::= FunctionsReturningStrings | FunctionsReturningNumerics |

˓→FunctionsReturningDateTime
FunctionsReturningNumerics ::=
"LENGTH" "(" StringPrimary ")" |
"LOCATE" "(" StringPrimary "," StringPrimary ["," SimpleArithmeticExpression]
˓→")" |
"ABS" "(" SimpleArithmeticExpression ")" |

"SQRT" "(" SimpleArithmeticExpression ")" |
"MOD" "(" SimpleArithmeticExpression "," SimpleArithmeticExpression ")" |
"SIZE" "(" CollectionValuedPathExpression ")" |
"DATE_DIFF" "(" ArithmeticPrimary "," ArithmeticPrimary ")" |
"BIT_AND" "(" ArithmeticPrimary "," ArithmeticPrimary ")" |
"BIT_OR" "(" ArithmeticPrimary "," ArithmeticPrimary ")"
FunctionsReturningDateTime ::=
"CURRENT_DATE" |
"CURRENT_TIME" |
"CURRENT_TIMESTAMP" |
"DATE_ADD" "(" ArithmeticPrimary "," ArithmeticPrimary "," StringPrimary ")" |
"DATE_SUB" "(" ArithmeticPrimary "," ArithmeticPrimary "," StringPrimary ")"
FunctionsReturningStrings ::=
"CONCAT" "(" StringPrimary "," StringPrimary ")" |
"SUBSTRING" "(" StringPrimary "," SimpleArithmeticExpression ","
˓→SimpleArithmeticExpression ")" |
"TRIM" "(" [["LEADING" | "TRAILING" | "BOTH"] [char] "FROM"] StringPrimary ")

˓→" |

"LOWER" "(" StringPrimary ")" |

"UPPER" "(" StringPrimary ")" |
"IDENTITY" "(" SingleValuedAssociationPathExpression {"," string} ")"
9.2.15 The QueryBuilder
A QueryBuilder provides an API that is designed for conditionally constructing a DQL query in several steps.
It provides a set of classes and methods that is able to programmatically build queries, and also provides a fluent API.
This means that you can change between one methodology to the other as you want, or just pick a preferred one.
Constructing a new QueryBuilder object
The same way you build a normal Query, you build a QueryBuilder object. Here is an example of how to build a
QueryBuilder object:
<?php
// example1: creating a QueryBuilder instance

$qb = $em->createQueryBuilder();
An instance of QueryBuilder has several informative methods. One good example is to inspect what type of object the
QueryBuilder is.
<?php
// $qb instanceof QueryBuilder
// example2: retrieving type of QueryBuilder

echo $qb->getType(); // Prints: 0
There’re currently 3 possible return values for getType():

• QueryBuilder::SELECT, which returns value 0
• QueryBuilder::DELETE, returning value 1
• QueryBuilder::UPDATE, which returns value 2
It is possible to retrieve the associated EntityManager of the current QueryBuilder, its DQL and also a Query
object when you finish building your DQL.
<?php
// example3: retrieve the associated EntityManager

$em = $qb->getEntityManager();
// example4: retrieve the DQL string of what was defined in QueryBuilder

$dql = $qb->getDql();
// example5: retrieve the associated Query object with the processed DQL
$q = $qb->getQuery();
Internally, QueryBuilder works with a DQL cache to increase performance. Any changes that may affect the gen-
erated DQL actually modifies the state of QueryBuilder to a stage we call STATE_DIRTY. One QueryBuilder
can be in two different states:

• QueryBuilder::STATE_CLEAN, which means DQL haven’t been altered since last retrieval or nothing
were added since its instantiation
• QueryBuilder::STATE_DIRTY, means DQL query must (and will) be processed on next retrieval
Working with QueryBuilder
High level API methods
To simplify even more the way you build a query in Doctrine, you can take advantage of Helper methods. For all base
code, there is a set of useful methods to simplify a programmer’s life. To illustrate how to work with them, here is the
same example 6 re-written using QueryBuilder helper methods:
<?php
$qb->select('u')
->from('User', 'u')
->where('u.id = ?1')
->orderBy('u.name', 'ASC');
QueryBuilder helper methods are considered the standard way to build DQL queries. Although it is supported,
using string-based queries should be avoided. You are greatly encouraged to use $qb->expr()->* methods. Here
is a converted example 8 to suggested standard way to build queries:
<?php
$qb->select(array('u')) // string 'u' is converted to array internally

->from('User', 'u')
->where($qb->expr()->orX(
$qb->expr()->eq('u.id', '?1'),
$qb->expr()->like('u.nickname', '?2')
))
->orderBy('u.surname', 'ASC');
Here is a complete list of helper methods available in QueryBuilder:

<?php
class QueryBuilder
{
// Example - $qb->select('u')
// Example - $qb->select(array('u', 'p'))
// Example - $qb->select($qb->expr()->select('u', 'p'))
public function select($select = null);
// addSelect does not override previous calls to select

//
// Example - $qb->select('u');
// ->addSelect('p.area_code');
public function addSelect($select = null);
// Example - $qb->delete('User', 'u')

public function delete($delete = null, $alias = null);
// Example - $qb->update('Group', 'g')

public function update($update = null, $alias = null);

// Example - $qb->set('u.firstName', $qb->expr()->literal('Arnold'))

// Example - $qb->set('u.numChilds', 'u.numChilds + ?1')
// Example - $qb->set('u.numChilds', $qb->expr()->sum('u.numChilds', '?1'))
public function set($key, $value);
// Example - $qb->from('Phonenumber', 'p')

// Example - $qb->from('Phonenumber', 'p', 'p.id')
public function from($from, $alias, $indexBy = null);
// Example - $qb->join('u.Group', 'g', Expr\Join::WITH, $qb->expr()->eq('u.status_

˓→id', '?1'))
// Example - $qb->join('u.Group', 'g', 'WITH', 'u.status = ?1')
// Example - $qb->join('u.Group', 'g', 'WITH', 'u.status = ?1', 'g.id')
public function join($join, $alias, $conditionType = null, $condition = null,
˓→$indexBy = null);
// Example - $qb->innerJoin('u.Group', 'g', Expr\Join::WITH, $qb->expr()->eq('u.

˓→status_id', '?1'))
// Example - $qb->innerJoin('u.Group', 'g', 'WITH', 'u.status = ?1')
// Example - $qb->innerJoin('u.Group', 'g', 'WITH', 'u.status = ?1', 'g.id')
public function innerJoin($join, $alias, $conditionType = null, $condition = null,
˓→ $indexBy = null);
// Example - $qb->leftJoin('u.Phonenumbers', 'p', Expr\Join::WITH, $qb->expr()->

˓→eq('p.area_code', 55))
// Example - $qb->leftJoin('u.Phonenumbers', 'p', 'WITH', 'p.area_code = 55')
// Example - $qb->leftJoin('u.Phonenumbers', 'p', 'WITH', 'p.area_code = 55', 'p.
˓→id')
public function leftJoin($join, $alias, $conditionType = null, $condition = null,

˓→$indexBy = null);
// NOTE: ->where() overrides all previously set conditions

//
// Example - $qb->where('u.firstName = ?1', $qb->expr()->eq('u.surname', '?2'))
// Example - $qb->where($qb->expr()->andX($qb->expr()->eq('u.firstName', '?1'),
˓→$qb->expr()->eq('u.surname', '?2')))
// Example - $qb->where('u.firstName = ?1 AND u.surname = ?2')

public function where($where);
// NOTE: ->andWhere() can be used directly, without any ->where() before

//
// Example - $qb->andWhere($qb->expr()->orX($qb->expr()->lte('u.age', 40), 'u.
˓→numChild = 0'))
public function andWhere($where);
// Example - $qb->orWhere($qb->expr()->between('u.id', 1, 10));

public function orWhere($where);
// NOTE: -> groupBy() overrides all previously set grouping conditions

//
// Example - $qb->groupBy('u.id')
public function groupBy($groupBy);
// Example - $qb->addGroupBy('g.name')
public function addGroupBy($groupBy);
// NOTE: -> having() overrides all previously set having conditions

//
// Example - $qb->having('u.salary >= ?1')
// Example - $qb->having($qb->expr()->gte('u.salary', '?1'))
public function having($having);
// Example - $qb->andHaving($qb->expr()->gt($qb->expr()->count('u.numChild'), 0))

public function andHaving($having);
// Example - $qb->orHaving($qb->expr()->lte('g.managerLevel', '100'))

public function orHaving($having);
// NOTE: -> orderBy() overrides all previously set ordering conditions

//
// Example - $qb->orderBy('u.surname', 'DESC')
public function orderBy($sort, $order = null);
// Example - $qb->addOrderBy('u.firstName')
public function addOrderBy($sort, $order = null); // Default $order = 'ASC'
}
Binding parameters to your query
Doctrine supports dynamic binding of parameters to your query, similar to preparing queries. You can use both strings
and numbers as placeholders, although both have a slightly different syntax. Additionally, you must make your choice:
Mixing both styles is not allowed. Binding parameters can simply be achieved as follows:
<?php
$qb->select('u')
->from('User', 'u')
->where('u.id = ?1')
->orderBy('u.name', 'ASC')
->setParameter(1, 100); // Sets ?1 to 100, and thus we will fetch a user with u.id
˓→= 100
You are not forced to enumerate your placeholders as the alternative syntax is available:
<?php
$qb->select('u')
->from('User', 'u')
->where('u.id = :identifier')
->orderBy('u.name', 'ASC')
->setParameter('identifier', 100); // Sets :identifier to 100, and thus we will
˓→fetch a user with u.id = 100
Note that numeric placeholders start with a ? followed by a number while the named placeholders start with a :
followed by a string.
Calling setParameter() automatically infers which type you are setting as value. This works for integers, arrays
of strings/integers, DateTime instances and for managed entities. If you want to set a type explicitly you can call
the third argument to setParameter() explicitly. It accepts either a DBAL DoctrineDBALParameterType::* or a
DBAL Type name for conversion.

If you’ve got several parameters to bind to your query, you can also use setParameters() instead of setParameter() with
the following syntax:
<?php
// Query here...
$qb->setParameters(array(1 => 'value for ?1', 2 => 'value for ?2'));
Getting already bound parameters is easy - simply use the above mentioned syntax with “getParameter()” or “getPa-
rameters()”:
<?php
// See example above

$params = $qb->getParameters();
// $params instanceof \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection
// Equivalent to
$param = $qb->getParameter(1);
// $param instanceof \Doctrine\ORM\Query\Parameter
Note: If you try to get a parameter that was not bound yet, getParameter() simply returns NULL.
The API of a Query Parameter is:
namespace Doctrine\ORM\Query;
class Parameter
{
public function getName();
public function getValue();
public function getType();
public function setValue($value, $type = null);
}
Limiting the Result
To limit a result the query builder has some methods in common with the Query object which can be retrieved from
EntityManager#createQuery().
<?php
$offset = (int)$_GET['offset'];
$limit = (int)$_GET['limit'];
$qb->add('select', 'u')
->add('from', 'User u')
->add('orderBy', 'u.name ASC')
->setFirstResult( $offset )
->setMaxResults( $limit );

Executing a Query
The QueryBuilder is a builder object only - it has no means of actually executing the Query. Additionally a set of
parameters such as query hints cannot be set on the QueryBuilder itself. This is why you always have to convert a
querybuilder instance into a Query object:
<?php
$query = $qb->getQuery();
// Set additional Query options

$query->setQueryHint('foo', 'bar');
$query->useResultCache('my_cache_id');
// Execute Query
$result = $query->getResult();
$single = $query->getSingleResult();
$array = $query->getArrayResult();
$scalar = $query->getScalarResult();
$singleScalar = $query->getSingleScalarResult();
The Expr class
To workaround some of the issues that add() method may cause, Doctrine created a class that can be considered
as a helper for building expressions. This class is called Expr, which provides a set of useful methods to help build
expressions:
<?php
// example8: QueryBuilder port of:

// "SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.id = ? OR u.nickname LIKE ? ORDER BY u.name ASC"
˓→using Expr class
$qb->add('select', new Expr\Select(array('u')))

->add('from', new Expr\From('User', 'u'))
->add('where', $qb->expr()->orX(
$qb->expr()->eq('u.id', '?1'),
$qb->expr()->like('u.nickname', '?2')
))
->add('orderBy', new Expr\OrderBy('u.name', 'ASC'));
Although it still sounds complex, the ability to programmatically create conditions are the main feature of Expr. Here
it is a complete list of supported helper methods available:
<?php
class Expr
{
/** Conditional objects **/
// Example - $qb->expr()->andX($cond1 [, $condN])->add(...)->...

public function andX($x = null); // Returns Expr\AndX instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->orX($cond1 [, $condN])->add(...)->...

public function orX($x = null); // Returns Expr\OrX instance
/** Comparison objects **/

// Example - $qb->expr()->eq('u.id', '?1') => u.id = ?1

public function eq($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->neq('u.id', '?1') => u.id <> ?1

public function neq($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->lt('u.id', '?1') => u.id < ?1

public function lt($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->lte('u.id', '?1') => u.id <= ?1

public function lte($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->gt('u.id', '?1') => u.id > ?1

public function gt($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->gte('u.id', '?1') => u.id >= ?1

public function gte($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->isNull('u.id') => u.id IS NULL

public function isNull($x); // Returns string
// Example - $qb->expr()->isNotNull('u.id') => u.id IS NOT NULL

public function isNotNull($x); // Returns string
/** Arithmetic objects **/
// Example - $qb->expr()->prod('u.id', '2') => u.id * 2

public function prod($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Math instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->diff('u.id', '2') => u.id - 2

public function diff($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Math instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->sum('u.id', '2') => u.id + 2

public function sum($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Math instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->quot('u.id', '2') => u.id / 2

public function quot($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Math instance
/** Pseudo-function objects **/
// Example - $qb->expr()->exists($qb2->getDql())
public function exists($subquery); // Returns Expr\Func instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->all($qb2->getDql())
public function all($subquery); // Returns Expr\Func instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->some($qb2->getDql())
public function some($subquery); // Returns Expr\Func instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->any($qb2->getDql())
public function any($subquery); // Returns Expr\Func instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->not($qb->expr()->eq('u.id', '?1'))

public function not($restriction); // Returns Expr\Func instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->in('u.id', array(1, 2, 3))

// Make sure that you do NOT use something similar to $qb->expr()->in('value',
˓→array('stringvalue')) as this will cause Doctrine to throw an Exception.

// Instead, use $qb->expr()->in('value', array('?1')) and bind your parameter to ?

˓→ 1 (see section above)
public function in($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Func instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->notIn('u.id', '2')

public function notIn($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Func instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->like('u.firstname', $qb->expr()->literal('Gui%'))

public function like($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->notLike('u.firstname', $qb->expr()->literal('Gui%'))

public function notLike($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Comparison instance
// Example - $qb->expr()->between('u.id', '1', '10')

public function between($val, $x, $y); // Returns Expr\Func
/** Function objects **/
// Example - $qb->expr()->trim('u.firstname')
public function trim($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->concat('u.firstname', $qb->expr()->concat($qb->expr()->

˓→ literal(' '), 'u.lastname'))
public function concat($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->substring('u.firstname', 0, 1)
public function substring($x, $from, $len); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->lower('u.firstname')
public function lower($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->upper('u.firstname')
public function upper($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->length('u.firstname')
public function length($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->avg('u.age')
public function avg($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->max('u.age')
public function max($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->min('u.age')
public function min($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->abs('u.currentBalance')
public function abs($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->sqrt('u.currentBalance')
public function sqrt($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->count('u.firstname')
public function count($x); // Returns Expr\Func
// Example - $qb->expr()->countDistinct('u.surname')
public function countDistinct($x); // Returns Expr\Func
}

Adding a Criteria to a Query
You can also add a Criteria to a QueryBuilder by using addCriteria:
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Criteria;
// ...
$criteria = Criteria::create()
->orderBy(['firstName', 'ASC']);

$qb->addCriteria($criteria);
// then execute your query like normal
Low Level API
Now we will describe the low level method of creating queries. It may be useful to work at this level for optimization
purposes, but most of the time it is preferred to work at a higher level of abstraction.
All helper methods in QueryBuilder actually rely on a single one: add(). This method is responsible of building
every piece of DQL. It takes 3 parameters: $dqlPartName, $dqlPart and $append (default=false)
• $dqlPartName: Where the $dqlPart should be placed. Possible values: select, from, where, groupBy,
having, orderBy
• $dqlPart: What should be placed in $dqlPartName. Accepts a string or any instance of
Doctrine\ORM\Query\Expr\*
• $append: Optional flag (default=false) if the $dqlPart should override all previously defined items in
$dqlPartName or not (no effect on the where and having DQL query parts, which always override all
previously defined items)
•
<?php
// example6: how to define:

// "SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.id = ? ORDER BY u.name ASC"
// using QueryBuilder string support
$qb->add('select', 'u')
->add('from', 'User u')
->add('where', 'u.id = ?1')
->add('orderBy', 'u.name ASC');
Expr* classes
When you call add() with string, it internally evaluates to an instance of

Doctrine\ORM\Query\Expr\Expr\* class. Here is the same query of example 6 written using
Doctrine\ORM\Query\Expr\Expr\* classes:
<?php

// example7: how to define:

// "SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.id = ? ORDER BY u.name ASC"
// using QueryBuilder using Expr\* instances
$qb->add('select', new Expr\Select(array('u')))
->add('from', new Expr\From('User', 'u'))
->add('where', new Expr\Comparison('u.id', '=', '?1'))
->add('orderBy', new Expr\OrderBy('u.name', 'ASC'));
9.2.16 Native SQL
With NativeQuery you can execute native SELECT SQL statements and map the results to Doctrine entities or any
other result format supported by Doctrine.
In order to make this mapping possible, you need to describe to Doctrine what columns in the result map to which
entity property. This description is represented by a ResultSetMapping object.
With this feature you can map arbitrary SQL code to objects, such as highly vendor-optimized SQL or stored-
procedures.
Writing ResultSetMapping from scratch is complex, but there is a convenience wrapper around it called a
ResultSetMappingBuilder. It can generate the mappings for you based on Entities and even generates the
SELECT clause based on this information for you.
Note: If you want to execute DELETE, UPDATE or INSERT statements the Native SQL API cannot be used and
will probably throw errors. Use EntityManager#getConnection() to access the native database connection
and call the executeUpdate() method for these queries.
The NativeQuery class
To create a NativeQuery you use the method EntityManager#createNativeQuery($sql,

$resultSetMapping). As you can see in the signature of this method, it expects 2 ingredients: The SQL
you want to execute and the ResultSetMapping that describes how the results will be mapped.
Once you obtained an instance of a NativeQuery, you can bind parameters to it with the same API that Query has
and execute it.
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Query\ResultSetMapping;
$rsm = new ResultSetMapping();

// build rsm here
$query = $entityManager->createNativeQuery('SELECT id, name, discr FROM users WHERE

˓→name = ?', $rsm);
$query->setParameter(1, 'romanb');
ResultSetMappingBuilder
An easy start into ResultSet mapping is the ResultSetMappingBuilder object. This has several benefits:

• The builder takes care of automatically updating your ResultSetMapping when the fields or associations
change on the metadata of an entity.
• You can generate the required SELECT expression for a builder by converting it to a string.
• The API is much simpler than the usual ResultSetMapping API.
One downside is that the builder API does not yet support entities with inheritance hierarchies.
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Query\ResultSetMappingBuilder;
$sql = "SELECT u.id, u.name, a.id AS address_id, a.street, a.city " .

"FROM users u INNER JOIN address a ON u.address_id = a.id";
$rsm = new ResultSetMappingBuilder($entityManager);

$rsm->addRootEntityFromClassMetadata('MyProject\User', 'u');
$rsm->addJoinedEntityFromClassMetadata('MyProject\Address', 'a', 'u', 'address',
˓→array('id' => 'address_id'));
The builder extends the ResultSetMapping class and as such has all the functionality of it as well.
New in version 2.4.
Starting with Doctrine ORM 2.4 you can generate the SELECT clause from a ResultSetMappingBuilder.
You can either cast the builder object to (string) and the DQL aliases are used as SQL table aliases or use the
generateSelectClause($tableAliases) method and pass a mapping from DQL alias (key) to SQL alias
(value)
<?php
$selectClause = $builder->generateSelectClause(array(
'u' => 't1',
'g' => 't2'
));
$sql = "SELECT " . $selectClause . " FROM users t1 JOIN groups t2 ON t1.group_id = t2.
˓→id";
The ResultSetMapping
Understanding the ResultSetMapping is the key to using a NativeQuery. A Doctrine result can contain the
following components:
• Entity results. These represent root result elements.
• Joined entity results. These represent joined entities in associations of root entity results.
• Field results. These represent a column in the result set that maps to a field of an entity. A field result always
belongs to an entity result or joined entity result.
• Scalar results. These represent scalar values in the result set that will appear in each result row. Adding scalar
results to a ResultSetMapping can also cause the overall result to become mixed (see DQL - Doctrine Query
Language) if the same ResultSetMapping also contains entity results.
• Meta results. These represent columns that contain meta-information, such as foreign keys and discriminator
columns. When querying for objects (getResult()), all meta columns of root entities or joined entities must
be present in the SQL query and mapped accordingly using ResultSetMapping#addMetaResult.

Note: It might not surprise you that Doctrine uses ResultSetMapping internally when you create DQL queries.
As the query gets parsed and transformed to SQL, Doctrine fills a ResultSetMapping that describes how the
results should be processed by the hydration routines.
We will now look at each of the result types that can appear in a ResultSetMapping in detail.
Entity results
An entity result describes an entity type that appears as a root element in the transformed result. You add an entity
result through ResultSetMapping#addEntityResult(). Let’s take a look at the method signature in detail:
<?php
/**
* Adds an entity result to this ResultSetMapping.
*
* @param string $class The class name of the entity.
* @param string $alias The alias for the class. The alias must be unique among all
˓→entity
* results or joined entity results within this ResultSetMapping.

*/
public function addEntityResult($class, $alias)
The first parameter is the fully qualified name of the entity class. The second parameter is some arbitrary alias for this
entity result that must be unique within a ResultSetMapping. You use this alias to attach field results to the entity
result. It is very similar to an identification variable that you use in DQL to alias classes or relationships.
An entity result alone is not enough to form a valid ResultSetMapping. An entity result or joined entity result
always needs a set of field results, which we will look at soon.
Joined entity results
A joined entity result describes an entity type that appears as a joined relationship element in
the transformed result, attached to a (root) entity result. You add a joined entity result through
ResultSetMapping#addJoinedEntityResult(). Let’s take a look at the method signature in detail:
<?php
/**
* Adds a joined entity result.
*
* @param string $class The class name of the joined entity.
* @param string $alias The unique alias to use for the joined entity.
* @param string $parentAlias The alias of the entity result that is the parent of
˓→this joined result.
* @param object $relation The association field that connects the parent entity
˓→result with the joined entity result.
*/
public function addJoinedEntityResult($class, $alias, $parentAlias, $relation)
The first parameter is the class name of the joined entity. The second parameter is an arbitrary alias for the joined
entity that must be unique within the ResultSetMapping. You use this alias to attach field results to the entity
result. The third parameter is the alias of the entity result that is the parent type of the joined relationship. The fourth
and last parameter is the name of the field on the parent entity result that should contain the joined entity result.

Field results
A field result describes the mapping of a single column in a SQL result set to a field in an entity. As such, field results
are inherently bound to entity results. You add a field result through ResultSetMapping#addFieldResult().
Again, let’s examine the method signature in detail:
<?php
/**
* Adds a field result that is part of an entity result or joined entity result.
*
* @param string $alias The alias of the entity result or joined entity result.
* @param string $columnName The name of the column in the SQL result set.
* @param string $fieldName The name of the field on the (joined) entity.
*/
public function addFieldResult($alias, $columnName, $fieldName)
The first parameter is the alias of the entity result to which the field result will belong. The second parameter is the
name of the column in the SQL result set. Note that this name is case sensitive, i.e. if you use a native query against
Oracle it must be all uppercase. The third parameter is the name of the field on the entity result identified by $alias
into which the value of the column should be set.
Scalar results
A scalar result describes the mapping of a single column in a SQL result set to a scalar value in the Doctrine result.
Scalar results are typically used for aggregate values but any column in the SQL result set can be mapped as a scalar
value. To add a scalar result use ResultSetMapping#addScalarResult(). The method signature in detail:
<?php
/**
* Adds a scalar result mapping.
*
* @param string $columnName The name of the column in the SQL result set.
* @param string $alias The result alias with which the scalar result should be
˓→placed in the result structure.
*/
public function addScalarResult($columnName, $alias)
The first parameter is the name of the column in the SQL result set and the second parameter is the result alias under
which the value of the column will be placed in the transformed Doctrine result.
Meta results
A meta result describes a single column in a SQL result set that is either a foreign key or a discriminator column.
These columns are essential for Doctrine to properly construct objects out of SQL result sets. To add a column as a
meta result use ResultSetMapping#addMetaResult(). The method signature in detail:
<?php
/**
* Adds a meta column (foreign key or discriminator column) to the result set.
*
* @param string $alias
* @param string $columnAlias
* @param string $columnName
* @param boolean $isIdentifierColumn

*/
public function addMetaResult($alias, $columnAlias, $columnName, $isIdentifierColumn
˓→= false)
The first parameter is the alias of the entity result to which the meta column belongs. A meta result column (foreign
key or discriminator column) always belongs to an entity result. The second parameter is the column alias/name of the
column in the SQL result set and the third parameter is the column name used in the mapping. The fourth parameter
should be set to true in case the primary key of the entity is the foreign key you’re adding.
Discriminator Column
When joining an inheritance tree you have to give Doctrine a hint which meta-column is the discriminator column of
this tree.
<?php
/**
* Sets a discriminator column for an entity result or joined entity result.
* The discriminator column will be used to determine the concrete class name to
* instantiate.
*
* @param string $alias The alias of the entity result or joined entity result the
˓→discriminator
* column should be used for.

* @param string $discrColumn The name of the discriminator column in the SQL result
˓→set.
*/
public function setDiscriminatorColumn($alias, $discrColumn)
Examples
Understanding a ResultSetMapping is probably easiest through looking at some examples.

First a basic example that describes the mapping of a single entity.
<?php
// Equivalent DQL query: "select u from User u where u.name=?1"
// User owns no associations.
$rsm = new ResultSetMapping;
$rsm->addEntityResult('User', 'u');
$rsm->addFieldResult('u', 'id', 'id');
$rsm->addFieldResult('u', 'name', 'name');
$query = $this->em->createNativeQuery('SELECT id, name FROM users WHERE name = ?',

˓→$rsm);
The result would look like this:
array(
)

Note that this would be a partial object if the entity has more fields than just id and name. In the example above the
column and field names are identical but that is not necessary, of course. Also note that the query string passed to
createNativeQuery is real native SQL. Doctrine does not touch this SQL in any way.
In the previous basic example, a User had no relations and the table the class is mapped to owns no foreign keys. The
next example assumes User has a unidirectional or bidirectional one-to-one association to a CmsAddress, where the
User is the owning side and thus owns the foreign key.
<?php
// User owns an association to an Address but the Address is not loaded in the query.
$rsm->addMetaResult('u', 'address_id', 'address_id');
$query = $this->em->createNativeQuery('SELECT id, name, address_id FROM users WHERE

˓→name = ?', $rsm);
Foreign keys are used by Doctrine for lazy-loading purposes when querying for objects. In the previous example, each
user object in the result will have a proxy (a “ghost”) in place of the address that contains the address_id. When the
ghost proxy is accessed, it loads itself based on this key.
Consequently, associations that are fetch-joined do not require the foreign keys to be present in the SQL result set,
only associations that are lazy.
<?php
// Equivalent DQL query: "select u from User u join u.address a WHERE u.name = ?1"
// User owns association to an Address and the Address is loaded in the query.
$rsm->addJoinedEntityResult('Address' , 'a', 'u', 'address');
$rsm->addFieldResult('a', 'address_id', 'id');
$rsm->addFieldResult('a', 'street', 'street');
$rsm->addFieldResult('a', 'city', 'city');
$sql = 'SELECT u.id, u.name, a.id AS address_id, a.street, a.city FROM users u ' .
'INNER JOIN address a ON u.address_id = a.id WHERE u.name = ?';
$query = $this->em->createNativeQuery($sql, $rsm);
In this case the nested entity Address is registered with the ResultSetMapping#addJoinedEntityResult
method, which notifies Doctrine that this entity is not hydrated at the root level, but as a joined entity somewhere inside
the object graph. In this case we specify the alias ‘u’ as third parameter and address as fourth parameter, which
means the Address is hydrated into the User::$address property.
If a fetched entity is part of a mapped hierarchy that requires a discriminator column, this column must be present in
the result set as a meta column so that Doctrine can create the appropriate concrete type. This is shown in the following
example where we assume that there are one or more subclasses that extend User and either Class Table Inheritance
or Single Table Inheritance is used to map the hierarchy (both use a discriminator column).

<?php
// User is a mapped base class for other classes. User owns no associations.
$rsm->addMetaResult('u', 'discr', 'discr'); // discriminator column
$rsm->setDiscriminatorColumn('u', 'discr');
$query = $this->em->createNativeQuery('SELECT id, name, discr FROM users WHERE name =

˓→?', $rsm);
Note that in the case of Class Table Inheritance, an example as above would result in partial objects if any objects in
the result are actually a subtype of User. When using DQL, Doctrine automatically includes the necessary joins for
this mapping strategy but with native SQL it is your responsibility.
Named Native Query
You can also map a native query using a named native query mapping.
To achieve that, you must describe the SQL resultset structure using named native query (and sql resultset mappings
if is a several resultset mappings).
Like named query, a named native query can be defined at class level or in an XML file.
A resultSetMapping parameter is defined in @NamedNativeQuery, it represents the name of a defined @SqlResult-
SetMapping.
• PHP
<?php
/**
* @NamedNativeQueries({
* @NamedNativeQuery(
* name = "fetchMultipleJoinsEntityResults",
* resultSetMapping= "mappingMultipleJoinsEntityResults",
* query = "SELECT u.id AS u_id, u.name AS u_name, u.status AS
˓→u_status, a.id AS a_id, a.zip AS a_zip, a.country AS a_country, COUNT(p.
˓→phonenumber) AS numphones FROM users u INNER JOIN addresses a ON u.id = a.user_
˓→id INNER JOIN phonenumbers p ON u.id = p.user_id GROUP BY u.id, u.name, u.
˓→status, u.username, a.id, a.zip, a.country ORDER BY u.username"
* ),
* })
* @SqlResultSetMappings({
* @SqlResultSetMapping(
* name = "mappingMultipleJoinsEntityResults",
* entities= {
* @EntityResult(
* entityClass = "__CLASS__",
* fields = {
* @FieldResult(name = "id", column="u_id"),
* @FieldResult(name = "name", column="u_name"),
* @FieldResult(name = "status", column="u_status"),

* }
* ),
* @EntityResult(
* entityClass = "Address",
* fields = {
* @FieldResult(name = "id", column="a_id"),
* @FieldResult(name = "zip", column="a_zip"),
* @FieldResult(name = "country", column="a_country"),
* }
* )
* },
* columns = {
* @ColumnResult("numphones")
* }
* )
*})
*/
class User
{
public $id;
/** @Column(type="string", length=50, nullable=true) */

public $status;
/** @Column(type="string", length=255, unique=true) */

public $username;
/** @Column(type="string", length=255) */

public $name;
/** @OneToMany(targetEntity="Phonenumber") */
public $phonenumbers;
/** @OneToOne(targetEntity="Address") */
public $address;
// ....
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\Model\User">
<named-native-queries>
<named-native-query name="fetchMultipleJoinsEntityResults" result-set-
˓→mapping="mappingMultipleJoinsEntityResults">
<query>SELECT u.id AS u_id, u.name AS u_name, u.status AS u_

˓→status, a.id AS a_id, a.zip AS a_zip, a.country AS a_country, COUNT(p.
˓→phonenumber) AS numphones FROM users u INNER JOIN addresses a ON u.id = a.user_
˓→id INNER JOIN phonenumbers p ON u.id = p.user_id GROUP BY u.id, u.name, u.
˓→status, u.username, a.id, a.zip, a.country ORDER BY u.username</query>
</named-native-query>
</named-native-queries>
<sql-result-set-mappings>
<sql-result-set-mapping name="mappingMultipleJoinsEntityResults">
<entity-result entity-class="__CLASS__">
<field-result name="id" column="u_id"/>

<field-result name="name" column="u_name"/>

<field-result name="status" column="u_status"/>
</entity-result>
<entity-result entity-class="Address">
<field-result name="id" column="a_id"/>
<field-result name="zip" column="a_zip"/>
<field-result name="country" column="a_country"/>
</entity-result>
<column-result name="numphones"/>
</sql-result-set-mapping>
</sql-result-set-mappings>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Things to note:
• The resultset mapping declares the entities retrieved by this native query.
• Each field of the entity is bound to a SQL alias (or column name).
• All fields of the entity including the ones of subclasses and the foreign key columns of related entities have
to be present in the SQL query.
• Field definitions are optional provided that they map to the same column name as the one declared on the
class property.
• __CLASS__ is an alias for the mapped class
In the above example, the fetchJoinedAddress named query use the joinMapping result set mapping. This
mapping returns 2 entities, User and Address, each property is declared and associated to a column name, actually the
column name retrieved by the query.
Let’s now see an implicit declaration of the property / column.
• PHP
<?php
/**
* name = "findAll",
* resultSetMapping = "mappingFindAll",
* query = "SELECT * FROM addresses"
* ),
* })
* name = "mappingFindAll",
* entities= {
* @EntityResult(
* entityClass = "Address"
* )
* }
* )
* })
*/
class Address
{

public $id;
/** @Column() */
public $country;
/** @Column() */
public $zip;
/** @Column()*/
public $city;
// ....
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\Model\Address">
<named-native-query name="findAll" result-set-mapping="mappingFindAll
˓→">
<query>SELECT * FROM addresses</query>

<sql-result-set-mapping name="mappingFindAll">
<entity-result entity-class="Address"/>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
In this example, we only describe the entity member of the result set mapping. The property / column mappings is done
using the entity mapping values. In this case the model property is bound to the model_txt column. If the association to
a related entity involve a composite primary key, a @FieldResult element should be used for each foreign key column.
The @FieldResult name is composed of the property name for the relationship, followed by a dot (“.”), followed by
the name or the field or property of the primary key.
• PHP
<?php
/**
* name = "fetchJoinedAddress",
* resultSetMapping= "mappingJoinedAddress",
* query = "SELECT u.id, u.name, u.status, a.id AS a_id, a.
˓→country AS a_country, a.zip AS a_zip, a.city AS a_city FROM users u INNER JOIN
˓→addresses a ON u.id = a.user_id WHERE u.username = ?"
* ),
* })
* name = "mappingJoinedAddress",
* entities= {
* @EntityResult(

* fields = {
* @FieldResult(name = "id"),
* @FieldResult(name = "name"),
* @FieldResult(name = "status"),
* @FieldResult(name = "address.id", column = "a_id"),
* @FieldResult(name = "address.zip", column = "a_zip"),
* @FieldResult(name = "address.city", column = "a_city
˓→"),
* @FieldResult(name = "address.country", column = "a_
˓→country"),
* }
* )
* }
* )
* })
*/
class User
{
public $id;

public $status;

public $username;

public $name;
public $address;
// ....
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\Model\User">
<named-native-query name="fetchJoinedAddress" result-set-mapping=
˓→"mappingJoinedAddress">
<query>SELECT u.id, u.name, u.status, a.id AS a_id, a.country AS

˓→a_country, a.zip AS a_zip, a.city AS a_city FROM users u INNER JOIN addresses a
˓→ON u.id = a.user_id WHERE u.username = ?</query>
<sql-result-set-mapping name="mappingJoinedAddress">
<entity-result entity-class="__CLASS__">
<field-result name="id"/>
<field-result name="name"/>
<field-result name="status"/>
<field-result name="address.id" column="a_id"/>
<field-result name="address.zip" column="a_zip"/>
<field-result name="address.city" column="a_city"/>
<field-result name="address.country" column="a_country"/>

</entity-result>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
If you retrieve a single entity and if you use the default mapping, you can use the resultClass attribute instead of
resultSetMapping:
• PHP
<?php
/**
* name = "find-by-id",
* resultClass = "Address",
* query = "SELECT * FROM addresses"
* ),
* })
*/
class Address
{
// ....
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<named-native-query name="find-by-id" result-class="Address">
<query>SELECT * FROM addresses WHERE id = ?</query>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
In some of your native queries, you’ll have to return scalar values, for example when building report queries. You
can map them in the @SqlResultsetMapping through @ColumnResult. You actually can even mix, entities and scalar
returns in the same native query (this is probably not that common though).
• PHP
<?php
/**
* name = "count",
* resultSetMapping= "mappingCount",
* query = "SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM addresses"
* )
* })
* name = "mappingCount",

* columns = {
* @ColumnResult(
* name = "count"
* )
* }
* )
* })
*/
class Address
{
// ....
}
• XML
<doctrine-mapping>
<named-native-query name="count" result-set-mapping="mappingCount">
<query>SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM addresses</query>
<sql-result-set-mapping name="mappingCount">
<column-result name="count"/>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
9.2.17 Change Tracking Policies
Change tracking is the process of determining what has changed in managed entities since the last time they were
synchronized with the database.
Doctrine provides 3 different change tracking policies, each having its particular advantages and disadvantages. The
change tracking policy can be defined on a per-class basis (or more precisely, per-hierarchy).
Deferred Implicit
The deferred implicit policy is the default change tracking policy and the most convenient one. With this policy,
Doctrine detects the changes by a property-by-property comparison at commit time and also detects changes to enti-
ties or new entities that are referenced by other managed entities (“persistence by reachability”). Although the most
convenient policy, it can have negative effects on performance if you are dealing with large units of work (see “Under-
standing the Unit of Work”). Since Doctrine can’t know what has changed, it needs to check all managed entities for
changes every time you invoke EntityManager#flush(), making this operation rather costly.
Deferred Explicit
The deferred explicit policy is similar to the deferred implicit policy in that it detects changes through a property-by-
property comparison at commit time. The difference is that Doctrine 2 only considers entities that have been explicitly
marked for change detection through a call to EntityManager#persist(entity) or through a save cascade. All other
entities are skipped. This policy therefore gives improved performance for larger units of work while sacrificing the
behavior of “automatic dirty checking”.

Therefore, flush() operations are potentially cheaper with this policy. The negative aspect this has is that if you have a
rather large application and you pass your objects through several layers for processing purposes and business tasks you
may need to track yourself which entities have changed on the way so you can pass them to EntityManager#persist().
This policy can be configured as follows:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @ChangeTrackingPolicy("DEFERRED_EXPLICIT")
*/
class User
{
// ...
}
Notify
This policy is based on the assumption that the entities notify interested listeners of changes to their properties. For
that purpose, a class that wants to use this policy needs to implement the NotifyPropertyChanged interface
from the Doctrine namespace. As a guideline, such an implementation can look as follows:
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\NotifyPropertyChanged,
Doctrine\Common\PropertyChangedListener;
/**
* @Entity
* @ChangeTrackingPolicy("NOTIFY")
*/
class MyEntity implements NotifyPropertyChanged
{
// ...
private $listeners = array();
public function addPropertyChangedListener(PropertyChangedListener $listener)

{
$this->listeners[] = $listener;
}
}
Then, in each property setter of this class or derived classes, you need to notify all the
PropertyChangedListener instances. As an example we add a convenience method on MyEntity
that shows this behaviour:
<?php
// ...
class MyEntity implements NotifyPropertyChanged

{
// ...
protected function onPropertyChanged($propName, $oldValue, $newValue)

{
if ($this->listeners) {
foreach ($this->listeners as $listener) {

$listener->propertyChanged($this, $propName, $oldValue, $newValue);

}
}
}
public function setData($data)

{
if ($data != $this->data) {
$this->onPropertyChanged('data', $this->data, $data);
$this->data = $data;
}
}
}
You have to invoke onPropertyChanged inside every method that changes the persistent state of MyEntity.
The check whether the new value is different from the old one is not mandatory but recommended. That way you also
have full control over when you consider a property changed.
The negative point of this policy is obvious: You need implement an interface and write some plumbing code. But also
note that we tried hard to keep this notification functionality abstract. Strictly speaking, it has nothing to do with the
persistence layer and the Doctrine ORM or DBAL. You may find that property notification events come in handy in
many other scenarios as well. As mentioned earlier, the Doctrine\Common namespace is not that evil and consists
solely of very small classes and interfaces that have almost no external dependencies (none to the DBAL and none
to the ORM) and that you can easily take with you should you want to swap out the persistence layer. This change
tracking policy does not introduce a dependency on the Doctrine DBAL/ORM or the persistence layer.
The positive point and main advantage of this policy is its effectiveness. It has the best performance characteristics of
the 3 policies with larger units of work and a flush() operation is very cheap when nothing has changed.
9.2.18 Partial Objects
A partial object is an object whose state is not fully initialized after being reconstituted from the database and that
is disconnected from the rest of its data. The following section will describe why partial objects are problematic and
what the approach of Doctrine2 to this problem is.
Note: The partial object problem in general does not apply to methods or queries where you do not retrieve
the query result as objects. Examples are: Query#getArrayResult(), Query#getScalarResult(),
Query#getSingleScalarResult(), etc.
Warning: Use of partial objects is tricky. Fields that are not retrieved from the database will not be updated by
the UnitOfWork even if they get changed in your objects. You can only promote a partial object to a fully-loaded
object by calling EntityManager#refresh() or a DQL query with the refresh flag.
What is the problem?
In short, partial objects are problematic because they are usually objects with broken invariants. As such, code that
uses these partial objects tends to be very fragile and either needs to “know” which fields or methods can be safely
accessed or add checks around every field access or method invocation. The same holds true for the internals, i.e. the
method implementations, of such objects. You usually simply assume the state you need in the method is available,

after all you properly constructed this object before you pushed it into the database, right? These blind assumptions
can quickly lead to null reference errors when working with such partial objects.
It gets worse with the scenario of an optional association (0..1 to 1). When the associated field is NULL, you don’t
know whether this object does not have an associated object or whether it was simply not loaded when the owning
object was loaded from the database.
These are reasons why many ORMs do not allow partial objects at all and instead you always have to load an object
with all its fields (associations being proxied). One secure way to allow partial objects is if the programming lan-
guage/platform allows the ORM tool to hook deeply into the object and instrument it in such a way that individual
fields (not only associations) can be loaded lazily on first access. This is possible in Java, for example, through byte-
code instrumentation. In PHP though this is not possible, so there is no way to have “secure” partial objects in an
ORM with transparent persistence.
Doctrine, by default, does not allow partial objects. That means, any query that only selects partial object data and
wants to retrieve the result as objects (i.e. Query#getResult()) will raise an exception telling you that partial
objects are dangerous. If you want to force a query to return you partial objects, possibly as a performance tweak, you
can use the partial keyword as follows:
<?php
$q = $em->createQuery("select partial u.{id,name} from MyApp\Domain\User u");
You can also get a partial reference instead of a proxy reference by calling:
<?php
$reference = $em->getPartialReference('MyApp\Domain\User', 1);
Partial references are objects with only the identifiers set as they are passed to the second argument of the
getPartialReference() method. All other fields are null.
When should I force partial objects?
Mainly for optimization purposes, but be careful of premature optimization as partial objects lead to potentially more
fragile code.
9.2.19 XML Mapping
The XML mapping driver enables you to provide the ORM metadata in form of XML documents.
The XML driver is backed by an XML Schema document that describes the structure of a mapping document. The
most recent version of the XML Schema document is available online at http://www.doctrine-project.org/schemas/
orm/doctrine-mapping.xsd. In order to point to the latest version of the document of a particular stable release branch,
just append the release number, i.e.: doctrine-mapping-2.0.xsd The most convenient way to work with XML mapping
files is to use an IDE/editor that can provide code-completion based on such an XML Schema document. The following
is an outline of a XML mapping document with the proper xmlns/xsi setup for the latest code in trunk.
https://raw.github.com/doctrine/doctrine2/master/doctrine-mapping.
˓→xsd">
...
</doctrine-mapping>

The XML mapping document of a class is loaded on-demand the first time it is requested and subsequently stored in
the metadata cache. In order to work, this requires certain conventions:
• Each entity/mapped superclass must get its own dedicated XML mapping document.
• The name of the mapping document must consist of the fully qualified name of the class, where namespace
separators are replaced by dots (.). For example an Entity with the fully qualified class-name “MyProject”
would require a mapping file “MyProject.Entities.User.dcm.xml” unless the extension is changed.
• All mapping documents should get the extension “.dcm.xml” to identify it as a Doctrine mapping file. This is
more of a convention and you are not forced to do this. You can change the file extension easily enough.
<?php
$driver->setFileExtension('.xml');
It is recommended to put all XML mapping documents in a single folder but you can spread the documents over
several folders if you want to. In order to tell the XmlDriver where to look for your mapping documents, supply an
array of paths as the first argument of the constructor, like this:
<?php
$driver = new \Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver\XmlDriver(array('/path/to/files1', '/path/
˓→to/files2'));
$config->setMetadataDriverImpl($driver);
Warning: Note that Doctrine ORM does not modify any settings for libxml, therefore, external XML entities
may or may not be enabled or configured correctly. XML mappings are not XXE/XEE attack vectors since they
are not related with user input, but it is recommended that you do not use external XML entities in your mapping
files to avoid running into unexpected behaviour.
Simplified XML Driver
The Symfony project sponsored a driver that simplifies usage of the XML Driver. The changes between the original
driver are:
1. File Extension is .orm.xml
2. Filenames are shortened, “MyProjectEntitiesUser” will become User.orm.xml
3. You can add a global file and add multiple entities in this file.
Configuration of this client works a little bit different:
<?php
$namespaces = array(
'/path/to/files1' => 'MyProject\Entities',
'/path/to/files2' => 'OtherProject\Entities'
);
$driver = new \Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver\SimplifiedXmlDriver($namespaces);
$driver->setGlobalBasename('global'); // global.orm.xml
Example
As a quick start, here is a small example document that makes use of several common elements:

// Doctrine.Tests.ORM.Mapping.User.dcm.xml
˓→mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Doctrine\Tests\ORM\Mapping\User" table="cms_users">
<indexes>
<index name="name_idx" columns="name"/>
<index columns="user_email"/>
</indexes>
<unique-constraints>
<unique-constraint columns="name,user_email" name="search_idx" />
</unique-constraints>
<lifecycle-callback type="prePersist" method="doStuffOnPrePersist"/>
<lifecycle-callback type="prePersist" method="doOtherStuffOnPrePersistToo
˓→ "/>
<lifecycle-callback type="postPersist" method="doStuffOnPostPersist"/>
<id name="id" type="integer" column="id">

<generator strategy="AUTO"/>
<sequence-generator sequence-name="tablename_seq" allocation-size="100"
˓→initial-value="1" />
</id>
<field name="name" column="name" type="string" length="50" nullable="true"

˓→unique="true" />
<field name="email" column="user_email" type="string" column-definition=
˓→"CHAR(32) NOT NULL" />
<one-to-one field="address" target-entity="Address" inversed-by="user">

<cascade><cascade-remove /></cascade>
<join-column name="address_id" referenced-column-name="id" on-delete=
˓→"CASCADE" on-update="CASCADE"/>
</one-to-one>
<one-to-many field="phonenumbers" target-entity="Phonenumber" mapped-by="user

˓→ ">
<cascade>
<cascade-persist/>
</cascade>
<order-by>
<order-by-field name="number" direction="ASC" />
</order-by>
</one-to-many>

<cascade>
<cascade-all/>
</cascade>
<join-table name="cms_users_groups">

<join-columns>
<join-column name="user_id" referenced-column-name="id" nullable=
˓→"false" unique="false" />
</join-columns>
<join-column name="group_id" referenced-column-name="id" column-
˓→definition="INT NULL" />
</join-table>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Be aware that class-names specified in the XML files should be fully qualified.
XML-Element Reference
The XML-Element reference explains all the tags and attributes that the Doctrine Mapping XSD Schema defines. You
should read the Basic-, Association- and Inheritance Mapping chapters to understand what each of this definitions
means in detail.
Defining an Entity
Each XML Mapping File contains the definition of one entity, specified as the <entity /> element as a direct child
of the <doctrine-mapping /> element:
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="MyProject\User" table="cms_users" schema="schema_name" repository-
˓→class="MyProject\UserRepository">


</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Required attributes:
• name - The fully qualified class-name of the entity.
Optional attributes:
• table - The Table-Name to be used for this entity. Otherwise the Unqualified Class-Name is used by default.
• repository-class - The fully qualified class-name of an alternative Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository
implementation to be used with this entity.
• inheritance-type - The type of inheritance, defaults to none. A more detailed description follows in the Defining
Inheritance Mappings section.
• read-only - (>= 2.1) Specifies that this entity is marked as read only and not considered for change-tracking.
Entities of this type can be persisted and removed though.
• schema - (>= 2.5) The schema the table lies in, for platforms that support schemas

Defining Fields
Each entity class can contain zero to infinite fields that are managed by Doctrine. You can define them using the
<field /> element as a children to the <entity /> element. The field element is only used for primitive types
that are not the ID of the entity. For the ID mapping you have to use the <id /> element.
<entity name="MyProject\User">
<field name="name" type="string" length="50" />

<field name="username" type="string" unique="true" />
<field name="age" type="integer" nullable="true" />
<field name="isActive" column="is_active" type="boolean" />
<field name="weight" type="decimal" scale="5" precision="2" />
<field name="login_count" type="integer" nullable="false">
<options>
<option name="comment">The number of times the user has logged in.</
˓→option>
<option name="default">0</option>
</options>
</field>
</entity>
• name - The name of the Property/Field on the given Entity PHP class.
• type - The Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type name, defaults to “string”
• column - Name of the column in the database, defaults to the field name.
• length - The length of the given type, for use with strings only.
• unique - Should this field contain a unique value across the table? Defaults to false.
• nullable - Should this field allow NULL as a value? Defaults to false.
• version - Should this field be used for optimistic locking? Only works on fields with type integer or datetime.
• scale - Scale of a decimal type.
• precision - Precision of a decimal type.
• options - Array of additional options:
– default - The default value to set for the column if no value is supplied.
– unsigned - Boolean value to determine if the column should be capable of representing only non-negative
integers (applies only for integer column and might not be supported by all vendors).
– fixed - Boolean value to determine if the specified length of a string column should be fixed or varying
(applies only for string/binary column and might not be supported by all vendors).
– comment - The comment of the column in the schema (might not be supported by all vendors).
– customSchemaOptions - Array of additional schema options which are mostly vendor specific.
• column-definition - Optional alternative SQL representation for this column. This definition begin after the
field-name and has to specify the complete column definition. Using this feature will turn this field dirty for
Schema-Tool update commands at all times.

Note: For more detailed information on each attribute, please refer to the DBAL Schema-Representation
documentation.
Defining Identity and Generator Strategies
An entity has to have at least one <id /> element. For composite keys you can specify more than one id-element,
however surrogate keys are recommended for use with Doctrine 2. The Id field allows to define properties of the
identifier and allows a subset of the <field /> element attributes:
<id name="id" type="integer" column="user_id" />
</entity>
• name - The name of the Property/Field on the given Entity PHP class.
• type - The Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type name, preferably “string” or “integer”.
• column - Name of the column in the database, defaults to the field name.
Using the simplified definition above Doctrine will use no identifier strategy for this entity. That means you have to
manually set the identifier before calling EntityManager#persist($entity). This is the so called NONE
strategy.
If you want to switch the identifier generation strategy you have to nest a <generator /> element inside the id-
element. This of course only works for surrogate keys. For composite keys you always have to use the NONE strategy.
<id name="id" type="integer" column="user_id">
</id>
</entity>
The following values are allowed for the <generator /> strategy attribute:
• AUTO - Automatic detection of the identifier strategy based on the preferred solution of the database vendor.
• IDENTITY - Use of a IDENTIFY strategy such as Auto-Increment IDs available to Doctrine AFTER the IN-
SERT statement has been executed.
• SEQUENCE - Use of a database sequence to retrieve the entity-ids. This is possible before the INSERT state-
ment is executed.
If you are using the SEQUENCE strategy you can define an additional element to describe the sequence:
<id name="id" type="integer" column="user_id">
<generator strategy="SEQUENCE" />
<sequence-generator sequence-name="user_seq" allocation-size="5" initial-
˓→value="1" />
</id>
</entity>
Required attributes for <sequence-generator />:

• sequence-name - The name of the sequence

Optional attributes for <sequence-generator />:

• allocation-size - By how much steps should the sequence be incremented when a value is retrieved. Defaults to
1
• initial-value - What should the initial value of the sequence be.
NOTE
If you want to implement a cross-vendor compatible application you have to specify and additionally
define the <sequence-generator /> element, if Doctrine chooses the sequence strategy for a platform.
Defining a Mapped Superclass
Sometimes you want to define a class that multiple entities inherit from, which itself is not an entity however. The
chapter on Inheritance Mapping describes a Mapped Superclass in detail. You can define it in XML using the
<mapped-superclass /> tag.
<doctrine-mapping>
<mapped-superclass name="MyProject\BaseClass">
<field name="created" type="datetime" />
<field name="updated" type="datetime" />
</doctrine-mapping>
• name - Class name of the mapped superclass.
You can nest any number of <field /> and unidirectional <many-to-one /> or <one-to-one /> associa-
tions inside a mapped superclass.
Defining Inheritance Mappings
There are currently two inheritance persistence strategies that you can choose from when defining entities that inherit
from each other. Single Table inheritance saves the fields of the complete inheritance hierarchy in a single table, joined
table inheritance creates a table for each entity combining the fields using join conditions.
You can specify the inheritance type in the <entity /> element and then use the <discriminator-column
/> and <discriminator-mapping /> attributes.
<entity name="MyProject\Animal" inheritance-type="JOINED">

<discriminator-column name="discr" type="string" />
<discriminator-map>
<discriminator-mapping value="cat" class="MyProject\Cat" />
<discriminator-mapping value="dog" class="MyProject\Dog" />
<discriminator-mapping value="mouse" class="MyProject\Mouse" />
</discriminator-map>
</entity>
The allowed values for inheritance-type attribute are JOINED or SINGLE_TABLE.
Note: All inheritance related definitions have to be defined on the root entity of the hierarchy.

Defining Lifecycle Callbacks
You can define the lifecycle callback methods on your entities using the <lifecycle-callbacks /> element:
<lifecycle-callback type="prePersist" method="onPrePersist" />
</entity>
Defining One-To-One Relations
You can define One-To-One Relations/Associations using the <one-to-one /> element. The required and optional
attributes depend on the associations being on the inverse or owning side.
For the inverse side the mapping is as simple as:
<entity class="MyProject\User">
<one-to-one field="address" target-entity="Address" mapped-by="user" />
</entity>
Required attributes for inverse One-To-One:

• field - Name of the property/field on the entity’s PHP class.
• target-entity - Name of the entity associated entity class. If this is not qualified the namespace of the current
class is prepended. IMPORTANT: No leading backslash!
• mapped-by - Name of the field on the owning side (here Address entity) that contains the owning side associa-
tion.
For the owning side this mapping would look like:
<entity class="MyProject\Address">
<one-to-one field="user" target-entity="User" inversed-by="address" />
</entity>
Required attributes for owning One-to-One:

Optional attributes for owning One-to-One:
• inversed-by - If the association is bidirectional the inversed-by attribute has to be specified with the name of the
field on the inverse entity that contains the back-reference.
• orphan-removal - If true, the inverse side entity is always deleted when the owning side entity is. Defaults to
false.
• fetch - Either LAZY or EAGER, defaults to LAZY. This attribute makes only sense on the owning side, the
inverse side ALWAYS has to use the FETCH strategy.
The definition for the owning side relies on a bunch of mapping defaults for the join column names. Without the nested
<join-column /> element Doctrine assumes to foreign key to be called user_id on the Address Entities table.
This is because the MyProject\Address entity is the owning side of this association, which means it contains the
foreign key.

The completed explicitly defined mapping is:
<entity class="MyProject\Address">
<one-to-one field="user" target-entity="User" inversed-by="address">
</one-to-one>
</entity>
Defining Many-To-One Associations
The many-to-one association is ALWAYS the owning side of any bidirectional association. This simplifies the mapping
compared to the one-to-one case. The minimal mapping for this association looks like:
<entity class="MyProject\Article">
<many-to-one field="author" target-entity="User" />
</entity>
• orphan-removal - If true the entity on the inverse side is always deleted when the owning side entity is and it is
not connected to any other owning side entity anymore. Defaults to false.
• fetch - Either LAZY or EAGER, defaults to LAZY.
This definition relies on a bunch of mapping defaults with regards to the naming of the join-column/foreign key. The
explicitly defined mapping includes a <join-column /> tag nested inside the many-to-one association tag:
<entity class="MyProject\Article">
<many-to-one field="author" target-entity="User">
<join-column name="author_id" referenced-column-name="id" />
</many-to-one>
</entity>
The join-column attribute name specifies the column name of the foreign key and the referenced-column-name
attribute specifies the name of the primary key column on the User entity.
Defining One-To-Many Associations
The one-to-many association is ALWAYS the inverse side of any association. There exists no such thing as a uni-
directional one-to-many association, which means this association only ever exists for bi-directional associations.
<one-to-many field="phonenumbers" target-entity="Phonenumber" mapped-by="user" />
</entity>

• mapped-by - Name of the field on the owning side (here Phonenumber entity) that contains the owning side
association.
• fetch - Either LAZY, EXTRA_LAZY or EAGER, defaults to LAZY.
• index-by: Index the collection by a field on the target entity.
Defining Many-To-Many Associations
From all the associations the many-to-many has the most complex definition. When you rely on the mapping defaults
you can omit many definitions and rely on their implicit values.
<many-to-many field="groups" target-entity="Group" />
</entity>
• mapped-by - Name of the field on the owning side that contains the owning side association if the defined
many-to-many association is on the inverse side.
• fetch - Either LAZY, EXTRA_LAZY or EAGER, defaults to LAZY.
• index-by: Index the collection by a field on the target entity.
The mapping defaults would lead to a join-table with the name “User_Group” being created that contains two columns
“user_id” and “group_id”. The explicit definition of this mapping would be:
<join-table name="cms_users_groups">
<join-columns>
<join-column name="user_id" referenced-column-name="id"/>
</join-columns>
<join-column name="group_id" referenced-column-name="id"/>
</join-table>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
Here both the <join-columns> and <inverse-join-columns> tags are necessary to tell Doctrine for which
side the specified join-columns apply. These are nested inside a <join-table /> attribute which allows to specify
the table name of the many-to-many join-table.

Cascade Element
Doctrine allows cascading of several UnitOfWork operations to related entities. You can specify the cascade operations
in the <cascade /> element inside any of the association mapping tags.
<cascade>
<cascade-all/>
</cascade>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
Besides <cascade-all /> the following operations can be specified by their respective tags:
• <cascade-persist />
• <cascade-remove />
• <cascade-refresh />
Join Column Element
In any explicitly defined association mapping you will need the <join-column /> tag. It defines how the foreign
key and primary key names are called that are used for joining two entities.
• name - The column name of the foreign key.
• referenced-column-name - The column name of the associated entities primary key
• unique - If the join column should contain a UNIQUE constraint. This makes sense for Many-To-Many join-
columns only to simulate a one-to-many unidirectional using a join-table.
• nullable - should the join column be nullable, defaults to true.
• on-delete - Foreign Key Cascade action to perform when entity is deleted, defaults to NO ACTION/RESTRICT
but can be set to “CASCADE”.
Defining Order of To-Many Associations
You can require one-to-many or many-to-many associations to be retrieved using an additional ORDER BY.
<order-by>
<order-by-field name="name" direction="ASC" />
</order-by>
</many-to-many>
</entity>
Defining Indexes or Unique Constraints
To define additional indexes or unique constraints on the entities table you can use the <indexes /> and
<unique-constraints /> elements:

<indexes>
<index name="name_idx" columns="name"/>
<index columns="user_email"/>
</indexes>
<unique-constraints>
<unique-constraint columns="name,user_email" name="search_idx" />
</unique-constraints>
</entity>
You have to specify the column and not the entity-class field names in the index and unique-constraint definitions.
Derived Entities ID syntax
If the primary key of an entity contains a foreign key to another entity we speak of a derived entity relationship. You
can define this in XML with the “association-key” attribute in the <id> tag.
http://raw.github.com/doctrine/doctrine2/master/doctrine-mapping.
˓→xsd">
<entity name="Application\Model\ArticleAttribute">
<id name="article" association-key="true" />
<id name="attribute" type="string" />
<field name="value" type="string" />
<many-to-one field="article" target-entity="Article" inversed-by="attributes"

˓→ />
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
9.2.20 Annotations Reference
You’ve probably used docblock annotations in some form already, most likely to provide documentation metadata for
a tool like PHPDocumentor (@author, @link, . . . ). Docblock annotations are a tool to embed metadata inside the
documentation section which can then be processed by some tool. Doctrine 2 generalizes the concept of docblock
annotations so that they can be used for any kind of metadata and so that it is easy to define new docblock annotations.
In order to allow more involved annotation values and to reduce the chances of clashes with other docblock annotations,
the Doctrine 2 docblock annotations feature an alternative syntax that is heavily inspired by the Annotation syntax
introduced in Java 5.
The implementation of these enhanced docblock annotations is located in the Doctrine\Common\Annotations
namespace and therefore part of the Common package. Doctrine 2 docblock annotations support namespaces and
nested annotations among other things. The Doctrine 2 ORM defines its own set of docblock annotations for supplying
object-relational mapping metadata.
Note: If you’re not comfortable with the concept of docblock annotations, don’t worry, as mentioned earlier Doctrine
2 provides the XML alternative and you could easily implement your own favourite mechanism for defining ORM

metadata.
In this chapter a reference of every Doctrine 2 Annotation is given with short explanations on their context and usage.
Index
• @Column
• @ColumnResult
• @Cache
• @ChangeTrackingPolicy
• @CustomIdGenerator
• @DiscriminatorColumn
• @DiscriminatorMap
• @Embeddable
• @Embedded
• @Entity
• @EntityResult
• @FieldResult
• @GeneratedValue
• @HasLifecycleCallbacks
• @Index
• @Id
• @InheritanceType
• @JoinColumn
• @JoinColumns
• @JoinTable
• @ManyToOne
• @ManyToMany
• @MappedSuperclass
• @NamedNativeQuery
• @OneToOne
• @OneToMany
• @OrderBy
• @PostLoad
• @PostPersist
• @PostRemove
• @PostUpdate

• @PrePersist
• @PreRemove
• @PreUpdate
• @SequenceGenerator
• @SqlResultSetMapping
• @Table
• @UniqueConstraint
• @Version
Reference
@Column
Marks an annotated instance variable as “persistent”. It has to be inside the instance variables PHP DocBlock com-
ment. Any value hold inside this variable will be saved to and loaded from the database as part of the lifecycle of the
instance variables entity-class.
• type: Name of the Doctrine Type which is converted between PHP and Database representation.
• name: By default the property name is used for the database column name also, however the ‘name’ attribute
allows you to determine the column name.
• length: Used by the “string” type to determine its maximum length in the database. Doctrine does not validate
the length of a string values for you.
• precision: The precision for a decimal (exact numeric) column (applies only for decimal column), which is the
maximum number of digits that are stored for the values.
• scale: The scale for a decimal (exact numeric) column (applies only for decimal column), which represents the
number of digits to the right of the decimal point and must not be greater than precision.
• unique: Boolean value to determine if the value of the column should be unique across all rows of the underlying
entities table.
• nullable: Determines if NULL values allowed for this column. If not specified, default value is false.
• options: Array of additional options:
– default: The default value to set for the column if no value is supplied.
– unsigned: Boolean value to determine if the column should be capable of representing only non-
negative integers (applies only for integer column and might not be supported by all vendors).
– fixed: Boolean value to determine if the specified length of a string column should be fixed or varying
(applies only for string/binary column and might not be supported by all vendors).
– comment: The comment of the column in the schema (might not be supported by all vendors).
– collation: The collation of the column (only supported by Drizzle, Mysql, PostgreSQL>=9.1, Sqlite
and SQLServer).
– check: Adds a check constraint type to the column (might not be supported by all vendors).

• columnDefinition: DDL SQL snippet that starts after the column name and specifies the complete (non-
portable!) column definition. This attribute allows to make use of advanced RMDBS features. However you
should make careful use of this feature and the consequences. SchemaTool will not detect changes on the
column correctly anymore if you use “columnDefinition”.
Additionally you should remember that the “type” attribute still handles the conversion between PHP and
Database values. If you use this attribute on a column that is used for joins between tables you should also
take a look at @JoinColumn.
Note: For more detailed information on each attribute, please refer to the DBAL Schema-Representation
documentation.
Examples:
<?php
/**
* @Column(type="string", length=32, unique=true, nullable=false)
*/
protected $username;
/**
* @Column(type="string", columnDefinition="CHAR(2) NOT NULL")
*/
protected $country;
/**
* @Column(type="decimal", precision=2, scale=1)
*/
protected $height;
/**
* @Column(type="string", length=2, options={"fixed":true, "comment":"Initial letters
˓→of first and last name"})
*/
protected $initials;
/**
* @Column(type="integer", name="login_count" nullable=false, options={"unsigned
˓→":true, "default":0})
*/
protected $loginCount;
@ColumnResult
References name of a column in the SELECT clause of a SQL query. Scalar result types can be included in the query
result by specifying this annotation in the metadata.
• name: The name of a column in the SELECT clause of a SQL query
@Cache
Add caching strategy to a root entity or a collection.

• usage: One of READ_ONLY, READ_WRITE or NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE, By default this is READ_ONLY.
• region: An specific region name
@ChangeTrackingPolicy
The Change Tracking Policy annotation allows to specify how the Doctrine 2 UnitOfWork should detect changes in
properties of entities during flush. By default each entity is checked according to a deferred implicit strategy, which
means upon flush UnitOfWork compares all the properties of an entity to a previously stored snapshot. This works out
of the box, however you might want to tweak the flush performance where using another change tracking policy is an
interesting option.
The details on all the available change tracking policies can be found in the configuration section.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @ChangeTrackingPolicy("DEFERRED_IMPLICIT")
* @ChangeTrackingPolicy("DEFERRED_EXPLICIT")
* @ChangeTrackingPolicy("NOTIFY")
*/
class User {}
@CustomIdGenerator
This annotations allows you to specify a user-provided class to generate identifiers. This annotation only works when
both @Id and @GeneratedValue(strategy=”CUSTOM”) are specified.
• class: name of the class which should extend DoctrineORMIdAbstractIdGenerator
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Id
* @GeneratedValue(strategy="CUSTOM")
* @CustomIdGenerator(class="My\Namespace\MyIdGenerator")
*/
public $id;
@DiscriminatorColumn
This annotation is an optional annotation for the topmost/super class of an inheritance hierarchy. It specifies the details
of the column which saves the name of the class, which the entity is actually instantiated as.
If this annotation is not specified, the discriminator column defaults to a string column of length 255 called dtype.

• name: The column name of the discriminator. This name is also used during Array hydration as key to specify
the class-name.
• type: By default this is string.
• length: By default this is 255.
@DiscriminatorMap
The discriminator map is a required annotation on the topmost/super class in an inheritance hierarchy. Its only argu-
ment is an array which defines which class should be saved under which name in the database. Keys are the database
value and values are the classes, either as fully- or as unqualified class names depending on whether the classes are in
the namespace or not.
<?php
/**
* @Entity
*/
class Person
{
// ...
}
@Embeddable
The embeddable annotation is required on a class, in order to make it embeddable inside an entity. It works together
with the @Embedded annotation to establish the relationship between the two classes.
<?php
/**
* @Embeddable
*/
class Address
{
// ...
class User
{
/**
* @Embedded(class = "Address")
*/
private $address;
@Embedded
The embedded annotation is required on an entity’s member variable, in order to specify that it is an embedded class.
• class: The embeddable class

<?php
// ...
class User
{
/**
* @Embedded(class = "Address")
*/
private $address;
/**
* @Embeddable
*/
class Address
{
// ...
@Entity
Required annotation to mark a PHP class as an entity. Doctrine manages the persistence of all classes marked as
entities.
• repositoryClass: Specifies the FQCN of a subclass of the EntityRepository. Use of repositories for entities is
encouraged to keep specialized DQL and SQL operations separated from the Model/Domain Layer.
• readOnly: (>= 2.1) Specifies that this entity is marked as read only and not considered for change-tracking.
Entities of this type can be persisted and removed though.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Entity(repositoryClass="MyProject\UserRepository")
*/
class User
{
//...
}
@EntityResult
References an entity in the SELECT clause of a SQL query. If this annotation is used, the SQL statement should select
all of the columns that are mapped to the entity object. This should include foreign key columns to related entities.
The results obtained when insufficient data is available are undefined.
• entityClass: The class of the result.
• fields: Array of @FieldResult, Maps the columns specified in the SELECT list of the query to the properties or
fields of the entity class.

• discriminatorColumn: Specifies the column name of the column in the SELECT list that is used to determine
the type of the entity instance.
@FieldResult
Is used to map the columns specified in the SELECT list of the query to the properties or fields of the entity class.
• name: Name of the persistent field or property of the class.
• column: Name of the column in the SELECT clause.
@GeneratedValue
Specifies which strategy is used for identifier generation for an instance variable which is annotated by @Id. This
annotation is optional and only has meaning when used in conjunction with @Id.
If this annotation is not specified with @Id the NONE strategy is used as default.
• strategy: Set the name of the identifier generation strategy. Valid values are AUTO, SEQUENCE, TABLE,
IDENTITY, UUID, CUSTOM and NONE. If not specified, default value is AUTO.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Id
* @GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
*/
@HasLifecycleCallbacks
Annotation which has to be set on the entity-class PHP DocBlock to notify Doctrine that this entity has entity lifecycle
callback annotations set on at least one of its methods. Using @PostLoad, @PrePersist, @PostPersist, @PreRemove,
@PostRemove, @PreUpdate or @PostUpdate without this marker annotation will make Doctrine ignore the callbacks.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @HasLifecycleCallbacks
*/
class User
{
/**
* @PostPersist
*/
public function sendOptinMail() {}
}

@Index
Annotation is used inside the @Table annotation on the entity-class level. It provides a hint to the SchemaTool to
generate a database index on the specified table columns. It only has meaning in the SchemaTool schema generation
context.
• name: Name of the Index
• columns: Array of columns.
• options: Array of platform specific options:
– where: SQL WHERE condition to be used for partial indexes. It will only have effect on supported
platforms.
Basic example:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @Table(name="ecommerce_products",indexes={@Index(name="search_idx", columns={"name
˓→", "email"})})
*/
class ECommerceProduct
{
}
Example with partial indexes:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @Table(name="ecommerce_products",indexes={@Index(name="search_idx", columns={"name
˓→", "email"}, options={"where": "(((id IS NOT NULL) AND (name IS NULL)) AND (email
˓→IS NULL))"})})
*/
{
}
@Id
The annotated instance variable will be marked as entity identifier, the primary key in the database. This annotation is
a marker only and has no required or optional attributes. For entities that have multiple identifier columns each column
has to be marked with @Id.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Id
*/

@InheritanceType
In an inheritance hierarchy you have to use this annotation on the topmost/super class to define which strategy should
be used for inheritance. Currently Single Table and Class Table Inheritance are supported.
This annotation has always been used in conjunction with the @DiscriminatorMap and @DiscriminatorColumn an-
notations.
Examples:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
*/
class Person
{
// ...
}
/**
* @Entity
*/
class Person
{
// ...
}
@JoinColumn
This annotation is used in the context of relations in @ManyToOne, @OneToOne fields and in the Context of
@JoinTable nested inside a @ManyToMany. This annotation is not required. If it is not specified the attributes
name and referencedColumnName are inferred from the table and primary key names.
• name: Column name that holds the foreign key identifier for this relation. In the context of @JoinTable it
specifies the column name in the join table.
• referencedColumnName: Name of the primary key identifier that is used for joining of this relation.
• unique: Determines whether this relation is exclusive between the affected entities and should be enforced as
such on the database constraint level. Defaults to false.
• nullable: Determine whether the related entity is required, or if null is an allowed state for the relation. Defaults
to true.
• onDelete: Cascade Action (Database-level)
• columnDefinition: DDL SQL snippet that starts after the column name and specifies the complete (non-
portable!) column definition. This attribute enables the use of advanced RMDBS features. Using this attribute
on @JoinColumn is necessary if you need slightly different column definitions for joining columns, for example

regarding NULL/NOT NULL defaults. However by default a “columnDefinition” attribute on @Column also
sets the related @JoinColumn’s columnDefinition. This is necessary to make foreign keys work.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="Customer")
*/
private $customer;
@JoinColumns
An array of @JoinColumn annotations for a @ManyToOne or @OneToOne relation with an entity that has multiple
identifiers.
@JoinTable
Using @OneToMany or @ManyToMany on the owning side of the relation requires to specify the @JoinTable an-
notation which describes the details of the database join table. If you do not specify @JoinTable on these relations
reasonable mapping defaults apply using the affected table and the column names.
• name: Database name of the join-table
• joinColumns: An array of @JoinColumn annotations describing the join-relation between the owning entities
table and the join table.
• inverseJoinColumns: An array of @JoinColumn annotations describing the join-relation between the inverse
entities table and the join table.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Phonenumber")
* @JoinTable(name="users_phonenumbers",
* inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="phonenumber_id", referencedColumnName=
˓→"id", unique=true)}
* )
*/
@ManyToOne
Defines that the annotated instance variable holds a reference that describes a many-to-one relationship between two
entities.
• targetEntity: FQCN of the referenced target entity. Can be the unqualified class name if both classes are in the
same namespace. IMPORTANT: No leading backslash!

• cascade: Cascade Option
• fetch: One of LAZY or EAGER
• inversedBy - The inversedBy attribute designates the field in the entity that is the inverse side of the relationship.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Cart", cascade={"all"}, fetch="EAGER")
*/
private $cart;
@ManyToMany
Defines that the annotated instance variable holds a many-to-many relationship between two entities. @JoinTable is
an additional, optional annotation that has reasonable default configuration values using the table and names of the
two related entities.
• mappedBy: This option specifies the property name on the targetEntity that is the owning side of this relation.
It is a required attribute for the inverse side of a relationship.
• inversedBy: The inversedBy attribute designates the field in the entity that is the inverse side of the relationship.
• fetch: One of LAZY, EXTRA_LAZY or EAGER
• indexBy: Index the collection by a field on the target entity.
Note: For ManyToMany bidirectional relationships either side may be the owning side (the side that defines the
@JoinTable and/or does not make use of the mappedBy attribute, thus using a default join table).
Example:
<?php
/**
* Owning Side
*
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="Group", inversedBy="features")
* @JoinTable(name="user_groups",
* inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="group_id", referencedColumnName="id")}
* )
*/
private $groups;
/**
* Inverse Side

*
* @ManyToMany(targetEntity="User", mappedBy="groups")
*/
private $features;
@MappedSuperclass
A mapped superclass is an abstract or concrete class that provides persistent entity state and mapping information for
its subclasses, but which is not itself an entity. This annotation is specified on the Class docblock and has no additional
attributes.
The @MappedSuperclass annotation cannot be used in conjunction with @Entity. See the Inheritance Mapping section
for more details on the restrictions of mapped superclasses.
• repositoryClass: (>= 2.2) Specifies the FQCN of a subclass of the EntityRepository. That will be inherited for
all subclasses of that Mapped Superclass.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @MappedSuperclass
*/
class MappedSuperclassBase
{
// ... fields and methods
}
/**
* @Entity
*/
class EntitySubClassFoo extends MappedSuperclassBase
{
// ... fields and methods
}
@NamedNativeQuery
Is used to specify a native SQL named query. The NamedNativeQuery annotation can be applied to an entity or
mapped superclass.
• name: The name used to refer to the query with the EntityManager methods that create query objects.
• query: The SQL query string.
• resultClass: The class of the result.
• resultSetMapping: The name of a SqlResultSetMapping, as defined in metadata.
Example:

<?php
/**
* name = "fetchJoinedAddress",
* resultSetMapping= "mappingJoinedAddress",
* query = "SELECT u.id, u.name, u.status, a.id AS a_id, a.country,
˓→ a.zip, a.city FROM cms_users u INNER JOIN cms_addresses a ON u.id = a.user_id
˓→WHERE u.username = ?"
* ),
* })
* name = "mappingJoinedAddress",
* entities= {
* @EntityResult(
* fields = {
* @FieldResult(name = "address.zip"),
* @FieldResult(name = "address.city"),
* @FieldResult(name = "address.country"),
* @FieldResult(name = "address.id", column = "a_id"),
* }
* )
* }
* )
* })
*/
class User
{
public $id;

public $status;

public $username;

public $name;
public $address;
// ....
}
@OneToOne
The @OneToOne annotation works almost exactly as the @ManyToOne with one additional option which can be
specified. The configuration defaults for @JoinColumn using the target entity table and primary key column names
apply here too.

• fetch: One of LAZY or EAGER
• orphanRemoval: Boolean that specifies if orphans, inverse OneToOne entities that are not connected to any
owning instance, should be removed by Doctrine. Defaults to false.
• inversedBy: The inversedBy attribute designates the field in the entity that is the inverse side of the relationship.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @OneToOne(targetEntity="Customer")
*/
private $customer;
@OneToMany
• orphanRemoval: Boolean that specifies if orphans, inverse OneToOne entities that are not connected to any
owning instance, should be removed by Doctrine. Defaults to false.
• mappedBy: This option specifies the property name on the targetEntity that is the owning side of this relation.
Its a required attribute for the inverse side of a relationship.
• fetch: One of LAZY, EXTRA_LAZY or EAGER.
• indexBy: Index the collection by a field on the target entity.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @OneToMany(targetEntity="Phonenumber", mappedBy="user", cascade={"persist", "remove
˓→"}, orphanRemoval=true)
*/
@OrderBy
Optional annotation that can be specified with a @ManyToMany or @OneToMany annotation to specify by which
criteria the collection should be retrieved from the database by using an ORDER BY clause.

This annotation requires a single non-attributed value with an DQL snippet:

Example:
<?php
/**
* @OrderBy({"name" = "ASC"})
*/
private $groups;
The DQL Snippet in OrderBy is only allowed to consist of unqualified, unquoted field names and of an optional
ASC/DESC positional statement. Multiple Fields are separated by a comma (,). The referenced field names have to
exist on the targetEntity class of the @ManyToMany or @OneToMany annotation.
@PostLoad
Marks a method on the entity to be called as a @PostLoad event. Only works with @HasLifecycleCallbacks in the
entity class PHP DocBlock.
@PostPersist
Marks a method on the entity to be called as a @PostPersist event. Only works with @HasLifecycleCallbacks in the
@PostRemove
Marks a method on the entity to be called as a @PostRemove event. Only works with @HasLifecycleCallbacks in the
@PostUpdate
Marks a method on the entity to be called as a @PostUpdate event. Only works with @HasLifecycleCallbacks in the
@PrePersist
Marks a method on the entity to be called as a @PrePersist event. Only works with @HasLifecycleCallbacks in the
@PreRemove
Marks a method on the entity to be called as a @PreRemove event. Only works with @HasLifecycleCallbacks in the
@PreUpdate
Marks a method on the entity to be called as a @PreUpdate event. Only works with @HasLifecycleCallbacks in the

@SequenceGenerator
For use with @GeneratedValue(strategy=”SEQUENCE”) this annotation allows to specify details about the sequence,
such as the increment size and initial values of the sequence.
• sequenceName: Name of the sequence
• allocationSize: Increment the sequence by the allocation size when its fetched. A value larger than 1 allows
optimization for scenarios where you create more than one new entity per request. Defaults to 10
• initialValue: Where the sequence starts, defaults to 1.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Id
* @GeneratedValue(strategy="SEQUENCE")
* @SequenceGenerator(sequenceName="tablename_seq", initialValue=1,
˓→allocationSize=100)
*/
@SqlResultSetMapping
The SqlResultSetMapping annotation is used to specify the mapping of the result of a native SQL query. The SqlRe-
sultSetMapping annotation can be applied to an entity or mapped superclass.
• name: The name given to the result set mapping, and used to refer to it in the methods of the Query API.
• entities: Array of @EntityResult, Specifies the result set mapping to entities.
• columns: Array of @ColumnResult, Specifies the result set mapping to scalar values.
Example:
<?php
/**
* name = "fetchUserPhonenumberCount",
* resultSetMapping= "mappingUserPhonenumberCount",
* query = "SELECT id, name, status, COUNT(phonenumber) AS
˓→numphones FROM cms_users INNER JOIN cms_phonenumbers ON id = user_id WHERE username
˓→IN (?) GROUP BY id, name, status, username ORDER BY username"
* ),
* name = "fetchMultipleJoinsEntityResults",
* resultSetMapping= "mappingMultipleJoinsEntityResults",
* query = "SELECT u.id AS u_id, u.name AS u_name, u.status AS u_
˓→status, a.id AS a_id, a.zip AS a_zip, a.country AS a_country, COUNT(p.phonenumber)
˓→AS numphones FROM cms_users u INNER JOIN cms_addresses a ON u.id = a.user_id INNER
˓→JOIN cms_phonenumbers p ON u.id = p.user_id GROUP BY u.id, u.name, u.status, u.
˓→username, a.id, a.zip, a.country ORDER BY u.username"

* ),
* })
* name = "mappingUserPhonenumberCount",
* entities= {
* @EntityResult(
* entityClass = "User",
* fields = {
* }
* )
* },
* columns = {
* }
* ),
* name = "mappingMultipleJoinsEntityResults",
* entities= {
* @EntityResult(
* fields = {
* @FieldResult(name = "id", column="u_id"),
* @FieldResult(name = "name", column="u_name"),
* @FieldResult(name = "status", column="u_status"),
* }
* ),
* @EntityResult(
* entityClass = "Address",
* fields = {
* @FieldResult(name = "id", column="a_id"),
* @FieldResult(name = "zip", column="a_zip"),
* @FieldResult(name = "country", column="a_country"),
* }
* )
* },
* columns = {
* }
* )
*})
*/
class User
{
public $id;

public $status;

public $username;

public $name;

/** @OneToMany(targetEntity="Phonenumber") */
public $address;
// ....
}
@Table
Annotation describes the table an entity is persisted in. It is placed on the entity-class PHP DocBlock and is optional.
If it is not specified the table name will default to the entity’s unqualified classname.
• name: Name of the table
• indexes: Array of @Index annotations
• uniqueConstraints: Array of @UniqueConstraint annotations.
• schema: (>= 2.5) Name of the schema the table lies in.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @Table(name="user",
* uniqueConstraints={@UniqueConstraint(name="user_unique",columns={"username"})}
˓→,
* indexes={@Index(name="user_idx", columns={"email"})}
* schema="schema_name"
* )
*/
class User { }
@UniqueConstraint
Annotation is used inside the @Table annotation on the entity-class level. It allows to hint the SchemaTool to generate
a database unique constraint on the specified table columns. It only has meaning in the SchemaTool schema generation
context.
• name: Name of the Index
• columns: Array of columns.
• options: Array of platform specific options:
– where: SQL WHERE condition to be used for partial indexes. It will only have effect on supported
platforms.

Basic example:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @Table(name="ecommerce_products",uniqueConstraints={@UniqueConstraint(name="search_
˓→idx", columns={"name", "email"})})
*/
{
}
Example with partial indexes:

<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @Table(name="ecommerce_products",uniqueConstraints={@UniqueConstraint(name="search_
˓→idx", columns={"name", "email"}, options={"where": "(((id IS NOT NULL) AND (name IS
˓→NULL)) AND (email IS NULL))"})})
*/
{
}
@Version
Marker annotation that defines a specified column as version attribute used in an optimistic locking scenario. It only
works on @Column annotations that have the type integer or datetime. Combining @Version with @Id is not
supported.
Example:
<?php
/**
* @Version
*/
protected $version;
9.2.21 PHP Mapping
Doctrine 2 also allows you to provide the ORM metadata in the form of plain PHP code using the ClassMetadata
API. You can write the code in PHP files or inside of a static function named loadMetadata($class) on the
entity class itself.
PHP Files
If you wish to write your mapping information inside PHP files that are named after the entity and included to populate
the metadata for an entity you can do so by using the PHPDriver:
<?php
$driver = new PHPDriver('/path/to/php/mapping/files');
$em->getConfiguration()->setMetadataDriverImpl($driver);

Now imagine we had an entity named Entities\User and we wanted to write a mapping file for it using the above
configured PHPDriver instance:
<?php
namespace Entities;
class User
{
private $id;
private $username;
}
To write the mapping information you just need to create a file named Entities.User.php inside of the /path/
to/php/mapping/files folder:
<?php
// /path/to/php/mapping/files/Entities.User.php
$metadata->mapField(array(
'id' => true,
'fieldName' => 'id',
'type' => 'integer'
));
'fieldName' => 'username',
'type' => 'string',
'options' => array(
'fixed' => true,
'comment' => "User's login name"
)
));
'fieldName' => 'login_count',
'type' => 'integer',
'nullable' => false,
'options' => array(
'unsigned' => true,
'default' => 0
)
));
Now we can easily retrieve the populated ClassMetadata instance where the PHPDriver includes the file and
the ClassMetadataFactory caches it for later retrieval:
<?php
$class = $em->getClassMetadata('Entities\User');
// or
$class = $em->getMetadataFactory()->getMetadataFor('Entities\User');
Static Function
In addition to the PHP files you can also specify your mapping information inside of a static function defined on the
entity class itself. This is useful for cases where you want to keep your entity and mapping information together but
don’t want to use annotations. For this you just need to use the StaticPHPDriver:

<?php
$driver = new StaticPHPDriver('/path/to/entities');
Now you just need to define a static function named loadMetadata($metadata) on your entity:
<?php
namespace Entities;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
class User
{
// ...
public static function loadMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)

{
'id' => true,
'fieldName' => 'id',
'type' => 'integer'
));
'fieldName' => 'username',
'type' => 'string'
));
}
}
ClassMetadataBuilder
To ease the use of the ClassMetadata API (which is very raw) there is a ClassMetadataBuilder that you can
use.
<?php
namespace Entities;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Builder\ClassMetadataBuilder;
class User
{
// ...
public static function loadMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)

{
$builder = new ClassMetadataBuilder($metadata);
$builder->createField('id', 'integer')->isPrimaryKey()->generatedValue()->
˓→build();
$builder->addField('username', 'string');
}
}
The API of the ClassMetadataBuilder has the following methods with a fluent interface:
• addField($name, $type, array $mapping)

• setMappedSuperclass()
• setReadOnly()
• setCustomRepositoryClass($className)
• setTable($name)
• addIndex(array $columns, $indexName)
• addUniqueConstraint(array $columns, $constraintName)
• addNamedQuery($name, $dqlQuery)
• setJoinedTableInheritance()
• setSingleTableInheritance()
• setDiscriminatorColumn($name, $type = 'string', $length = 255)
• addDiscriminatorMapClass($name, $class)
• setChangeTrackingPolicyDeferredExplicit()
• setChangeTrackingPolicyNotify()
• addLifecycleEvent($methodName, $event)
• addManyToOne($name, $targetEntity, $inversedBy = null)
• addInverseOneToOne($name, $targetEntity, $mappedBy)
• addOwningOneToOne($name, $targetEntity, $inversedBy = null)
• addOwningManyToMany($name, $targetEntity, $inversedBy = null)
• addInverseManyToMany($name, $targetEntity, $mappedBy)
• addOneToMany($name, $targetEntity, $mappedBy)
It also has several methods that create builders (which are necessary for advanced mappings):
• createField($name, $type) returns a FieldBuilder instance
• createManyToOne($name, $targetEntity) returns an AssociationBuilder instance
• createOneToOne($name, $targetEntity) returns an AssociationBuilder instance
• createManyToMany($name, $targetEntity) returns an ManyToManyAssociationBuilder
instance
• createOneToMany($name, $targetEntity) returns an OneToManyAssociationBuilder in-
stance
ClassMetadata API
The ClassMetadata class is the base data object for storing the mapping metadata for a single entity. It contains
all the getters and setters you need populate and retrieve information for an entity.
Internal
• getReflectionClass()
• getReflectionProperties()
• getReflectionProperty($name)

• getSingleIdReflectionProperty()
• getIdentifierValues($entity)
• assignIdentifier($entity, $id)
• setFieldValue($entity, $field, $value)
• getFieldValue($entity, $field)
General Setters
• setTableName($tableName)
• setPrimaryTable(array $primaryTableDefinition)
• setCustomRepositoryClass($repositoryClassName)
• setIdGeneratorType($generatorType)
• setIdGenerator($generator)
• setSequenceGeneratorDefinition(array $definition)
• setChangeTrackingPolicy($policy)
• setIdentifier(array $identifier)
Inheritance Setters
• setInheritanceType($type)
• setSubclasses(array $subclasses)
• setParentClasses(array $classNames)
• setDiscriminatorColumn($columnDef)
• setDiscriminatorMap(array $map)
Field Mapping Setters
• addProperty(Property $property)
• addAssociation(AssociationMetadata $property)
Lifecycle Callback Setters
• addLifecycleCallback($callback, $event)
• setLifecycleCallbacks(array $callbacks)
Versioning Setters
• setVersionMapping(array &$mapping)
• setVersioned($bool)
• setVersionField()

General Getters
• getTableName()
• getSchemaName()
• getTemporaryIdTableName()
Identifier Getters
• getIdentifierColumnNames()
• isIdentifier($fieldName)
• getIdentifierFieldNames()
• getSingleIdentifierFieldName()
• getSingleIdentifierColumnName()
Inheritance Getters
• isInheritedField($fieldName)
• isInheritedAssociation($fieldName)
Field & Association Getters
• isUniqueField($fieldName)
• isNullable($fieldName)
• getColumnName($fieldName)
• getFieldMapping($fieldName)
• getFieldName($columnName)
• hasField($fieldName)
• getTypeOfField($fieldName)
• getTypeOfColumn($columnName)
• hasAssociation($fieldName)
• isSingleValuedAssociation($fieldName)
• isCollectionValuedAssociation($fieldName)
Lifecycle Callback Getters
• hasLifecycleCallbacks($lifecycleEvent)
• getLifecycleCallbacks($event)

9.2.22 Caching
Doctrine provides cache drivers in the Common package for some of the most popular caching implementations such
as APC, Memcache and Xcache. We also provide an ArrayCache driver which stores the data in a PHP array.
Obviously, when using ArrayCache, the cache does not persist between requests, but this is useful for testing in a
development environment.
Cache Drivers
The cache drivers follow a simple interface that is defined in Doctrine\Common\Cache\Cache. All the cache
drivers extend a base class Doctrine\Common\Cache\CacheProvider which implements this interface.
The interface defines the following public methods for you to implement:
• fetch($id) - Fetches an entry from the cache
• contains($id) - Test if an entry exists in the cache
• save($id, $data, $lifeTime = false) - Puts data into the cache for x seconds. 0 = infinite time
• delete($id) - Deletes a cache entry
Each driver extends the CacheProvider class which defines a few abstract protected methods that each of the
drivers must implement:
• _doFetch($id)
• _doContains($id)
• _doSave($id, $data, $lifeTime = false)
• _doDelete($id)
The public methods fetch(), contains() etc. use the above protected methods which are implemented by the
drivers. The code is organized this way so that the protected methods in the drivers do the raw interaction with the
cache implementation and the CacheProvider can build custom functionality on top of these methods.
This documentation does not cover every single cache driver included with Doctrine. For an up-to-date-list, see the
cache directory on GitHub <https://github.com/doctrine/cache/tree/master/lib/Doctrine/Common/Cache>.
APC
In order to use the APC cache driver you must have it compiled and enabled in your php.ini. You can read about APC
in the PHP Documentation. It will give you a little background information about what it is and how you can use it as
well as how to install it.
Below is a simple example of how you could use the APC cache driver by itself.
<?php
$cacheDriver = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcCache();
$cacheDriver->save('cache_id', 'my_data');
APCu
In order to use the APCu cache driver you must have it compiled and enabled in your php.ini. You can read about
APCu in the PHP Documentation. It will give you a little background information about what it is and how you can
use it as well as how to install it.

Below is a simple example of how you could use the APCu cache driver by itself.
<?php
$cacheDriver = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcuCache();
Memcache
In order to use the Memcache cache driver you must have it compiled and enabled in your php.ini. You can read about
Memcache on the PHP website. It will give you a little background information about what it is and how you can use
it as well as how to install it.
Below is a simple example of how you could use the Memcache cache driver by itself.
<?php
$memcache = new Memcache();
$memcache->connect('memcache_host', 11211);
$cacheDriver = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\MemcacheCache();

$cacheDriver->setMemcache($memcache);
Memcached
Memcached is a more recent and complete alternative extension to Memcache.

In order to use the Memcached cache driver you must have it compiled and enabled in your php.ini. You can read
about Memcached on the PHP website. It will give you a little background information about what it is and how you
can use it as well as how to install it.
Below is a simple example of how you could use the Memcached cache driver by itself.
<?php
$memcached = new Memcached();
$memcached->addServer('memcache_host', 11211);
$cacheDriver = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\MemcachedCache();

$cacheDriver->setMemcached($memcached);
Xcache
In order to use the Xcache cache driver you must have it compiled and enabled in your php.ini. You can read about
Xcache here. It will give you a little background information about what it is and how you can use it as well as how to
install it.
Below is a simple example of how you could use the Xcache cache driver by itself.
<?php
$cacheDriver = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\XcacheCache();

Redis
In order to use the Redis cache driver you must have it compiled and enabled in your php.ini. You can read about what
Redis is from here. Also check A PHP extension for Redis for how you can use and install the Redis PHP extension.
Below is a simple example of how you could use the Redis cache driver by itself.
<?php
$redis = new Redis();
$redis->connect('redis_host', 6379);
$cacheDriver = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\RedisCache();

$cacheDriver->setRedis($redis);
Using Cache Drivers
In this section we’ll describe how you can fully utilize the API of the cache drivers to save data to a cache, check if
some cached data exists, fetch the cached data and delete the cached data. We’ll use the ArrayCache implementation
as our example here.
<?php
$cacheDriver = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache();
Saving
Saving some data to the cache driver is as simple as using the save() method.
<?php
The save() method accepts three arguments which are described below:
• $id - The cache id
• $data - The cache entry/data.
• $lifeTime - The lifetime. If != false, sets a specific lifetime for this cache entry (null => infinite lifeTime).
You can save any type of data whether it be a string, array, object, etc.
<?php
$array = array(
'key1' => 'value1',
'key2' => 'value2'
);
$cacheDriver->save('my_array', $array);
Checking
Checking whether cached data exists is very simple: just use the contains() method. It accepts a single argument
which is the ID of the cache entry.

<?php
if ($cacheDriver->contains('cache_id')) {
echo 'cache exists';
} else {
echo 'cache does not exist';
}
Fetching
Now if you want to retrieve some cache entry you can use the fetch() method. It also accepts a single argument
just like contains() which is again the ID of the cache entry.
<?php
$array = $cacheDriver->fetch('my_array');
Deleting
As you might guess, deleting is just as easy as saving, checking and fetching. You can delete by an individual ID, or
you can delete all entries.
By Cache ID
<?php
$cacheDriver->delete('my_array');
All
If you simply want to delete all cache entries you can do so with the deleteAll() method.
<?php
$deleted = $cacheDriver->deleteAll();
Namespaces
If you heavily use caching in your application and use it in multiple parts of your application, or use it in different
applications on the same server you may have issues with cache naming collisions. This can be worked around by
using namespaces. You can set the namespace a cache driver should use by using the setNamespace() method.
<?php
$cacheDriver->setNamespace('my_namespace_');
Integrating with the ORM
The Doctrine ORM package is tightly integrated with the cache drivers to allow you to improve the performance of
various aspects of Doctrine by simply making some additional configurations and method calls.

Query Cache
It is highly recommended that in a production environment you cache the transformation of a DQL query to its SQL
counterpart. It doesn’t make sense to do this parsing multiple times as it doesn’t change unless you alter the DQL
query.
This can be done by configuring the query cache implementation to use on your ORM configuration.
<?php
$config->setQueryCacheImpl(new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcuCache());
Result Cache
The result cache can be used to cache the results of your queries so that we don’t have to query the database again
after the first time. You just need to configure the result cache implementation.
<?php
$config->setResultCacheImpl(new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcuCache());
Now when you’re executing DQL queries you can configure them to use the result cache.
<?php
$query = $em->createQuery('select u from \Entities\User u');
$query->useResultCache(true);
You can also configure an individual query to use a different result cache driver.
<?php
$query->setResultCacheDriver(new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcuCache());
Note: Setting the result cache driver on the query will automatically enable the result cache for the query. If you want
to disable it pass false to useResultCache().
<?php
$query->useResultCache(false);
If you want to set the time the cache has to live you can use the setResultCacheLifetime() method.
<?php
$query->setResultCacheLifetime(3600);
The ID used to store the result set cache is a hash which is automatically generated for you if you don’t set a custom
ID yourself with the setResultCacheId() method.
<?php
$query->setResultCacheId('my_custom_id');
You can also set the lifetime and cache ID by passing the values as the second and third argument to
useResultCache().
<?php
$query->useResultCache(true, 3600, 'my_custom_id');

Metadata Cache
Your class metadata can be parsed from a few different sources like XML, Annotations, etc. Instead of parsing this
information on each request we should cache it using one of the cache drivers.
Just like the query and result cache we need to configure it first.
<?php
$config->setMetadataCacheImpl(new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcuCache());
Now the metadata information will only be parsed once and stored in the cache driver.
Clearing the Cache
We’ve already shown you how you can use the API of the cache drivers to manually delete cache entries. For your
convenience we offer command line tasks to help you with clearing the query, result and metadata cache.
From the Doctrine command line you can run the following commands:
To clear the query cache use the orm:clear-cache:query task.
$ ./doctrine orm:clear-cache:query
To clear the metadata cache use the orm:clear-cache:metadata task.
$ ./doctrine orm:clear-cache:metadata
To clear the result cache use the orm:clear-cache:result task.
$ ./doctrine orm:clear-cache:result
All these tasks accept a --flush option to flush the entire contents of the cache instead of invalidating the entries.
Cache Chaining
A common pattern is to use a static cache to store data that is requested many times in a single PHP request. Even
though this data may be stored in a fast memory cache, often that cache is over a network link leading to sizable
network traffic.
The ChainCache class allows multiple caches to be registered at once. For example, a per-request ArrayCache can
be used first, followed by a (relatively) slower MemcacheCache if the ArrayCache misses. ChainCache automatically
handles pushing data up to faster caches in the chain and clearing data in the entire stack when it is deleted.
A ChainCache takes a simple array of CacheProviders in the order that they should be used.
$arrayCache = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache();

$memcache = new Memcache();
$memcache->connect('memcache_host', 11211);
$chainCache = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ChainCache([
$arrayCache,
$memcache,
]);
ChainCache itself extends the CacheProvider interface, so it is possible to create chains of chains. While this may seem
like an easy way to build a simple high-availability cache, ChainCache does not implement any exception handling so
using it as a high-availability mechanism is not recommended.

Cache Slams
Something to be careful of when using the cache drivers is “cache slams”. Imagine you have a heavily trafficked web-
site with some code that checks for the existence of a cache record and if it does not exist it generates the information
and saves it to the cache. Now, if 100 requests were issued all at the same time and each one sees the cache does not
exist and they all try to insert the same cache entry it could lock up APC, Xcache, etc. and cause problems. Ways exist
to work around this, like pre-populating your cache and not letting your users’ requests populate the cache.
You can read more about cache slams in this blog post.
9.2.23 Improving Performance
Bytecode Cache
It is highly recommended to make use of a bytecode cache like APC. A bytecode cache removes the need for parsing
PHP code on every request and can greatly improve performance.
“If you care about performance and don’t use a bytecode cache then you don’t really care about perfor-
mance. Please get one and start using it.”
Stas Malyshev, Core Contributor to PHP and Zend Employee
Metadata and Query caches
As already mentioned earlier in the chapter about configuring Doctrine, it is strongly discouraged to use Doctrine
without a Metadata and Query cache (preferably with APC or Memcache as the cache driver). Operating Doctrine
without these caches means Doctrine will need to load your mapping information on every single request and has to
parse each DQL query on every single request. This is a waste of resources.
Alternative Query Result Formats
Make effective use of the available alternative query result formats like nested array graphs or pure scalar results,
especially in scenarios where data is loaded for read-only purposes.
Read-Only Entities
Starting with Doctrine 2.1 you can mark entities as read only (See metadata mapping references for details). This
means that the entity marked as read only is never considered for updates, which means when you call flush on the
EntityManager these entities are skipped even if properties changed. Read-Only allows to persist new entities of a
kind and remove existing ones, they are just not considered for updates.
Extra-Lazy Collections
If entities hold references to large collections you will get performance and memory problems initializing them. To
solve this issue you can use the EXTRA_LAZY fetch-mode feature for collections. See the tutorial for more informa-
tion on how this fetch mode works.
Temporarily change fetch mode in DQL
See Doctrine Query Language chapter

Apply Best Practices
A lot of the points mentioned in the Best Practices chapter will also positively affect the performance of Doctrine.
Change Tracking policies
See: Change Tracking Policies
9.2.24 Tools
Doctrine Console
The Doctrine Console is a Command Line Interface tool for simplifying common administration tasks during the
development of a project that uses Doctrine 2.
Take a look at the Installation and Configuration chapter for more information how to setup the console command.
Display Help Information
Type php vendor/bin/doctrine on the command line and you should see an overview of the available com-
mands or use the –help flag to get information on the available commands. If you want to know more about the use of
generate entities for example, you can call:
$> php vendor/bin/doctrine orm:generate-entities --help
Configuration
Whenever the doctrine command line tool is invoked, it can access all Commands that were registered by developer.
There is no auto-detection mechanism at work. The Doctrine binary already registers all the commands that currently
ship with Doctrine DBAL and ORM. If you want to use additional commands you have to register them yourself.
All the commands of the Doctrine Console require access to the EntityManager or DBAL Connection. You have
to inject them into the console application using so called Helper-Sets. This requires either the db or the em helpers
to be defined in order to work correctly.
Whenever you invoke the Doctrine binary the current folder is searched for a cli-config.php file. This file
contains the project specific configuration:
<?php
'db' => new \Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\Console\Helper\ConnectionHelper($conn)
));
$cli->setHelperSet($helperSet);
When dealing with the ORM package, the EntityManagerHelper is required:
<?php
));

The HelperSet instance has to be generated in a separate file (i.e. cli-config.php) that contains typical Doctrine
bootstrap code and predefines the needed HelperSet attributes mentioned above. A sample cli-config.php file
looks as follows:
<?php
// cli-config.php
require_once 'my_bootstrap.php';
// Any way to access the EntityManager from your application

$em = GetMyEntityManager();

'db' => new \Doctrine\DBAL\Tools\Console\Helper\ConnectionHelper($em->
˓→getConnection()),

));
It is important to define a correct HelperSet that Doctrine binary script will ultimately use. The Doctrine Binary will
automatically find the first instance of HelperSet in the global variable namespace and use this.
Note: You have to adjust this snippet for your specific application or framework and use their facilities to access the
Doctrine EntityManager and Connection Resources.
Command Overview
The following Commands are currently available:

• help Displays help for a command (?)
• list Lists commands
• dbal:import Import SQL file(s) directly to Database.
• dbal:run-sql Executes arbitrary SQL directly from the command line.
• orm:clear-cache:metadata Clear all metadata cache of the various cache drivers.
• orm:clear-cache:query Clear all query cache of the various cache drivers.
• orm:clear-cache:result Clear result cache of the various cache drivers.
• orm:convert-d1-schema Converts Doctrine 1.X schema into a Doctrine 2.X schema.
• orm:ensure-production-settings Verify that Doctrine is properly configured for a production envi-
ronment.
• orm:generate-proxies Generates proxy classes for entity classes.
• orm:run-dql Executes arbitrary DQL directly from the command line.
• orm:schema-tool:create Processes the schema and either create it directly on EntityManager Storage
Connection or generate the SQL output.
• orm:schema-tool:drop Processes the schema and either drop the database schema of EntityManager
Storage Connection or generate the SQL output.
• orm:schema-tool:update Processes the schema and either update the database schema of EntityManager
Storage Connection or generate the SQL output.
For these commands are also available aliases:

• orm:convert:d1-schema is alias for orm:convert-d1-schema.

• orm:generate:proxies is alias for orm:generate-proxies.
Note: Console also supports auto completion, for example, instead of orm:clear-cache:query you can use
just o:c:q.
Database Schema Generation
Note: SchemaTool can do harm to your database. It will drop or alter tables, indexes, sequences and such. Please
use this tool with caution in development and not on a production server. It is meant for helping you develop your
Database Schema, but NOT with migrating schema from A to B in production. A safe approach would be generating
the SQL on development server and saving it into SQL Migration files that are executed manually on the production
server.
SchemaTool assumes your Doctrine Project uses the given database on its own. Update and Drop commands will mess
with other tables if they are not related to the current project that is using Doctrine. Please be careful!
To generate your database schema from your Doctrine mapping files you can use the SchemaTool class or the
schema-tool Console Command.
When using the SchemaTool class directly, create your schema using the createSchema() method. First create
an instance of the SchemaTool and pass it an instance of the EntityManager that you want to use to create the
schema. This method receives an array of ClassMetadata instances.
<?php
$tool = new \Doctrine\ORM\Tools\SchemaTool($em);
$classes = array(
$em->getClassMetadata('Entities\User'),
$em->getClassMetadata('Entities\Profile')
);
$tool->createSchema($classes);
To drop the schema you can use the dropSchema() method.
<?php
$tool->dropSchema($classes);
This drops all the tables that are currently used by your metadata model. When you are changing your metadata a lot
during development you might want to drop the complete database instead of only the tables of the current model to
clean up with orphaned tables.
<?php
$tool->dropSchema($classes, \Doctrine\ORM\Tools\SchemaTool::DROP_DATABASE);
You can also use database introspection to update your schema easily with the updateSchema() method. It will
compare your existing database schema to the passed array of ClassMetadata instances.
<?php
$tool->updateSchema($classes);
If you want to use this functionality from the command line you can use the schema-tool command.
To create the schema use the create command:

$ php doctrine orm:schema-tool:create
To drop the schema use the drop command:
$ php doctrine orm:schema-tool:drop
If you want to drop and then recreate the schema then use both options:
$ php doctrine orm:schema-tool:drop

$ php doctrine orm:schema-tool:create
As you would think, if you want to update your schema use the update command:
$ php doctrine orm:schema-tool:update
All of the above commands also accept a --dump-sql option that will output the SQL for the ran operation.
$ php doctrine orm:schema-tool:create --dump-sql
Before using the orm:schema-tool commands, remember to configure your cli-config.php properly.
Note: When using the Annotation Mapping Driver you have to either setup your autoloader in
the cli-config.php correctly to find all the entities, or you can use the second argument of the
EntityManagerHelper to specify all the paths of your entities (or mapping files), i.e. new
\Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Console\Helper\EntityManagerHelper($em, $mappingPaths);
Runtime vs Development Mapping Validation
For performance reasons Doctrine 2 has to skip some of the necessary validation of metadata mappings. You have to
execute this validation in your development workflow to verify the associations are correctly defined.
You can either use the Doctrine Command Line Tool:
doctrine orm:validate-schema
Or you can trigger the validation manually:
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\SchemaValidator;
$validator = new SchemaValidator($entityManager);

$errors = $validator->validateMapping();
if (count($errors) > 0) {
// Lots of errors!
echo implode("\n\n", $errors);
}
If the mapping is invalid the errors array contains a positive number of elements with error messages.
Warning: One mapping option that is not validated is the use of the referenced column name. It has to point to
the equivalent primary key otherwise Doctrine will not work.

Note: One common error is to use a backlash in front of the fully-qualified class-name. Whenever a FQCN is
represented inside a string (such as in your mapping definitions) you have to drop the prefix backslash. PHP does this
with get_class() or Reflection methods for backwards compatibility reasons.
Adding own commands
You can also add your own commands on-top of the Doctrine supported tools if you are using a manually built console
script.
To include a new command on Doctrine Console, you need to do modify the doctrine.php file a little:
<?php
// doctrine.php
use Symfony\Component\Console\Application;
// as before ...
// replace the ConsoleRunner::run() statement with:

$cli = new Application('Doctrine Command Line Interface',
˓→\Doctrine\ORM\Version::VERSION);
$cli->setCatchExceptions(true);
// Register All Doctrine Commands

ConsoleRunner::addCommands($cli);
// Register your own command

$cli->addCommand(new \MyProject\Tools\Console\Commands\MyCustomCommand);
// Runs console application

$cli->run();
Additionally, include multiple commands (and overriding previously defined ones) is possible through the command:
<?php
$cli->addCommands(array(
new \MyProject\Tools\Console\Commands\MyCustomCommand(),
new \MyProject\Tools\Console\Commands\SomethingCommand(),
new \MyProject\Tools\Console\Commands\AnotherCommand(),
new \MyProject\Tools\Console\Commands\OneMoreCommand(),
));
Re-use console application
You are also able to retrieve and re-use the default console application. Just call
ConsoleRunner::createApplication(...) with an appropriate HelperSet, like it is described in
the configuration section.
<?php
// Retrieve default console application

$cli = ConsoleRunner::createApplication($helperSet);

// Runs console application

$cli->run();
9.2.25 Metadata Drivers
The heart of an object relational mapper is the mapping information that glues everything together. It instructs the
EntityManager how it should behave when dealing with the different entities.
Core Metadata Drivers
Doctrine provides a few different ways for you to specify your metadata:
• XML files (XmlDriver)
• Class DocBlock Annotations (AnnotationDriver)
• PHP Code in files or static functions (PhpDriver)
Something important to note about the above drivers is they are all an intermediate step to the same end result. The
mapping information is populated to Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetadata instances. So in the end,
Doctrine only ever has to work with the API of the ClassMetadata class to get mapping information for an entity.
Note: The populated ClassMetadata instances are also cached so in a production environment the pars-
ing and populating only ever happens once. You can configure the metadata cache implementation using the
setMetadataCacheImpl() method on the Doctrine\ORM\Configuration class:
<?php
$em->getConfiguration()->setMetadataCacheImpl(new ApcuCache());
If you want to use one of the included core metadata drivers you just need to configure it. All the drivers are in the
Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver namespace:
<?php
$driver = new \Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver\XmlDriver('/path/to/mapping/files');
Implementing Metadata Drivers
In addition to the included metadata drivers you can very easily implement your own. All you need to do is define a
class which implements the Driver interface:
<?php
namespace Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver;
interface Driver
{
/**
* Loads the metadata for the specified class into the provided container.
*
* @param string $className
* @param ClassMetadata $metadata

*/
function loadMetadataForClass($className, ClassMetadata $metadata);
/**
* Gets the names of all mapped classes known to this driver.
*
* @return array The names of all mapped classes known to this driver.
*/
function getAllClassNames();
/**
* Whether the class with the specified name should have its metadata loaded.
* This is only the case if it is either mapped as an Entity or a
* MappedSuperclass.
*
* @param string $className
* @return boolean
*/
function isTransient($className);
}
If you want to write a metadata driver to parse information from some file format we’ve made your life a little easier
by providing the AbstractFileDriver implementation for you to extend from:
<?php
class MyMetadataDriver extends AbstractFileDriver
{
/**
* {@inheritdoc}
*/
protected $fileExtension = '.dcm.ext';
/**
* {@inheritdoc}
*/
public function loadMetadataForClass($className, ClassMetadata $metadata)
{
$data = $this->loadMappingFile($file);
// populate ClassMetadata instance from $data

}
/**
* {@inheritdoc}
*/
protected function loadMappingFile($file)
{
// parse contents of $file and return php data structure
}
}
Note: When using the AbstractFileDriver it requires that you only have one entity defined per file and the file
named after the class described inside where namespace separators are replaced by periods. So if you have an entity
named Entities\User and you wanted to write a mapping file for your driver above you would need to name the
file Entities.User.dcm.ext for it to be recognized.

Now you can use your MyMetadataDriver implementation by setting it with the
setMetadataDriverImpl() method:
<?php
$driver = new MyMetadataDriver('/path/to/mapping/files');
ClassMetadata
The last piece you need to know and understand about metadata in Doctrine 2 is the API of the ClassMetadata
classes. You need to be familiar with them in order to implement your own drivers but more importantly to retrieve
mapping information for a certain entity when needed.
You have all the methods you need to manually specify the mapping information instead of using some mapping file
to populate it from. The ClassMetadata class is responsible for only data storage and is not meant for runtime
use. It does not require that the class actually exists yet so it is useful for describing some entity before it exists and
using that information to generate for example the entities themselves.
You can read more about the API of the ClassMetadata classes in the PHP Mapping chapter.
Getting ClassMetadata Instances
If you want to get the ClassMetadata instance for an entity in your project to programmatically use
some mapping information to generate some HTML or something similar you can retrieve it through the
ClassMetadataFactory:
<?php
$cmf = $em->getMetadataFactory();
$class = $cmf->getMetadataFor('MyEntityName');
Now you can learn about the entity and use the data stored in the ClassMetadata instance to get all mapped fields
for example and iterate over them:
<?php
foreach ($class->fieldMappings as $fieldMapping) {
echo $fieldMapping['fieldName'] . "\n";
}
9.2.26 Best Practices
The best practices mentioned here that affect database design generally refer to best practices when working with
Doctrine and do not necessarily reflect best practices for database design in general.
Constrain relationships as much as possible
It is important to constrain relationships as much as possible. This means:

• Impose a traversal direction (avoid bidirectional associations if possible)
• Eliminate nonessential associations
This has several benefits:
• Reduced coupling in your domain model

• Simpler code in your domain model (no need to maintain bidirectionality properly)
• Less work for Doctrine
Avoid composite keys
Even though Doctrine fully supports composite keys it is best not to use them if possible. Composite keys require
additional work by Doctrine and thus have a higher probability of errors.
Use events judiciously
The event system of Doctrine is great and fast. Even though making heavy use of events, especially lifecycle events,
can have a negative impact on the performance of your application. Thus you should use events judiciously.
Use cascades judiciously
Automatic cascades of the persist/remove/refresh/etc. operations are very handy but should be used wisely. Do NOT
simply add all cascades to all associations. Think about which cascades actually do make sense for you for a particular
association, given the scenarios it is most likely used in.
Don’t use special characters
Avoid using any non-ASCII characters in class, field, table or column names. Doctrine itself is not unicode-safe in
many places and will not be until PHP itself is fully unicode-aware.
Don’t use identifier quoting
Identifier quoting is a workaround for using reserved words that often causes problems in edge cases. Do not use
identifier quoting and avoid using reserved words as table or column names.
Initialize collections in the constructor
It is recommended best practice to initialize any business collections in entities in the constructor. Example:
<?php
class User {
private $addresses;
private $articles;

$this->addresses = new ArrayCollection;
$this->articles = new ArrayCollection;
}
}

Don’t map foreign keys to fields in an entity
Foreign keys have no meaning whatsoever in an object model. Foreign keys are how a relational database establishes
relationships. Your object model establishes relationships through object references. Thus mapping foreign keys to
object fields heavily leaks details of the relational model into the object model, something you really should not do.
Use explicit transaction demarcation
While Doctrine will automatically wrap all DML operations in a transaction on flush(), it is considered best practice to
explicitly set the transaction boundaries yourself. Otherwise every single query is wrapped in a small transaction (Yes,
SELECT queries, too) since you can not talk to your database outside of a transaction. While such short transactions
for read-only (SELECT) queries generally don’t have any noticeable performance impact, it is still preferable to use
fewer, well-defined transactions that are established through explicit transaction boundaries.
9.2.27 Limitations and Known Issues
We try to make using Doctrine2 a very pleasant experience. Therefore we think it is very important to be honest about
the current limitations to our users. Much like every other piece of software Doctrine2 is not perfect and far from
feature complete. This section should give you an overview of current limitations of Doctrine 2 as well as critical
known issues that you should know about.
Current Limitations
There is a set of limitations that exist currently which might be solved in the future. Any of this limitations now stated
has at least one ticket in the Tracker and is discussed for future releases.
Join-Columns with non-primary keys
It is not possible to use join columns pointing to non-primary keys. Doctrine will think these are the primary keys and
create lazy-loading proxies with the data, which can lead to unexpected results. Doctrine can for performance reasons
not validate the correctness of this settings at runtime but only through the Validate Schema command.
Mapping Arrays to a Join Table
Related to the previous limitation with “Foreign Keys as Identifier” you might be interested in mapping the same table
structure as given above to an array. However this is not yet possible either. See the following example:
CREATE TABLE product (
id INTEGER,
name VARCHAR,
PRIMARY KEY(id)
);
CREATE TABLE product_attributes (

product_id INTEGER,
attribute_name VARCHAR,
attribute_value VARCHAR,
PRIMARY KEY (product_id, attribute_name)
);
This schema should be mapped to a Product Entity as follows:

class Product
{
private $id;
private $name;
private $attributes = array();
}
Where the attribute_name column contains the key and attribute_value contains the value of each array
element in $attributes.
The feature request for persistence of primitive value arrays is described in the DDC-298 ticket.
Custom Persisters
A Persister in Doctrine is an object that is responsible for the hydration and write operations of an entity against the
database. Currently there is no way to overwrite the persister implementation for a given entity, however there are
several use-cases that can benefit from custom persister implementations:
• Add Upsert Support
• Evaluate possible ways in which stored-procedures can be used
Persist Keys of Collections
PHP Arrays are ordered hash-maps and so should be the Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection

interface. We plan to evaluate a feature that optionally persists and hydrates the keys of a Collection instance.
Ticket DDC-213
Mapping many tables to one entity
It is not possible to map several equally looking tables onto one entity. For example if you have a production and an
archive table of a certain business concept then you cannot have both tables map to the same entity.
Behaviors
Doctrine 2 will never include a behavior system like Doctrine 1 in the core library. We don’t think behaviors add more
value than they cost pain and debugging hell. Please see the many different blog posts we have written on this topics:
• Doctrine2 “Behaviors” in a Nutshell
• A re-usable Versionable behavior for Doctrine2
• Write your own ORM on top of Doctrine2
• Doctrine 2 Behavioral Extensions
• Doctrator <https://github.com/pablodip/doctrator>_
Doctrine 2 has enough hooks and extension points so that you can add whatever you want on top of it. None of this
will ever become core functionality of Doctrine2 however, you will have to rely on third party extensions for magical
behaviors.

Nested Set
NestedSet was offered as a behavior in Doctrine 1 and will not be included in the core of Doctrine 2. However there
are already two extensions out there that offer support for Nested Set with Doctrine 2:
• Doctrine2 Hierarchical-Structural Behavior
• Doctrine2 NestedSet
Known Issues
The Known Issues section describes critical/blocker bugs and other issues that are either complicated to fix, not fixable
due to backwards compatibility issues or where no simple fix exists (yet). We don’t plan to add every bug in the tracker
there, just those issues that can potentially cause nightmares or pain of any sort.
See the Open Bugs on Jira for more details on bugs, improvement and feature requests.
Identifier Quoting and Legacy Databases
For compatibility reasons between all the supported vendors and edge case problems Doctrine 2 does NOT do auto-
matic identifier quoting. This can lead to problems when trying to get legacy-databases to work with Doctrine 2.
• You can quote column-names as described in the Basic-Mapping section.
• You cannot quote join column names.
• You cannot use non [a-zA-Z0-9_]+ characters, they will break several SQL statements.
Having problems with these kind of column names? Many databases support all CRUD operations on views that
semantically map to certain tables. You can create views for all your problematic tables and column names to avoid
the legacy quoting nightmare.
Microsoft SQL Server and Doctrine “datetime”
Doctrine assumes that you use DateTime2 data-types. If your legacy database contains DateTime datatypes then
you have to add your own data-type (see Basic Mapping for an example).
MySQL with MyISAM tables
Doctrine cannot provide atomic operations when calling EntityManager#flush() if one of the tables involved
uses the storage engine MyISAM. You must use InnoDB or other storage engines that support transactions if you need
integrity.
9.2.28 Filters
New in version 2.2.

Doctrine 2.2 features a filter system that allows the developer to add SQL to the conditional clauses of queries, regard-
less the place where the SQL is generated (e.g. from a DQL query, or by loading associated entities).
The filter functionality works on SQL level. Whether a SQL query is generated in a Persister, during lazy loading, in
extra lazy collections or from DQL. Each time the system iterates over all the enabled filters, adding a new SQL part
as a filter returns.

By adding SQL to the conditional clauses of queries, the filter system filters out rows belonging to the entities at the
level of the SQL result set. This means that the filtered entities are never hydrated (which can be expensive).
Example filter class
Throughout this document the example MyLocaleFilter class will be used to illustrate how the filter feature
works. A filter class must extend the base Doctrine\ORM\Query\Filter\SQLFilter class and implement
the addFilterConstraint method. The method receives the ClassMetadata of the filtered entity and the
table alias of the SQL table of the entity.
Note: In the case of joined or single table inheritance, you always get passed the ClassMetadata of the inheritance
root. This is necessary to avoid edge cases that would break the SQL when applying the filters.
Parameters for the query should be set on the filter object by SQLFilter#setParameter(). Only parameters
set via this function can be used in filters. The SQLFilter#getParameter() function takes care of the proper
quoting of parameters.
<?php
namespace Example;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetaData,
Doctrine\ORM\Query\Filter\SQLFilter;
class MyLocaleFilter extends SQLFilter

{
public function addFilterConstraint(ClassMetadata $targetEntity,
˓→$targetTableAlias)
{
// Check if the entity implements the LocalAware interface
if (!$targetEntity->getReflectionClass()->implementsInterface('LocaleAware'))
˓→{
return "";
}
return $targetTableAlias.'.locale = ' . $this->getParameter('locale'); //

˓→ getParameter applies quoting automatically
}
}
Configuration
Filter classes are added to the configuration as following:

<?php
$config->addFilter("locale", "\Doctrine\Tests\ORM\Functional\MyLocaleFilter");
The Configuration#addFilter() method takes a name for the filter and the name of the class responsible for
the actual filtering.
Disabling/Enabling Filters and Setting Parameters
Filters can be disabled and enabled via the FilterCollection which is stored in the EntityManager. The
FilterCollection#enable($name) method will retrieve the filter object. You can set the filter parameters on
that object.

<?php
$filter = $em->getFilters()->enable("locale");
$filter->setParameter('locale', 'en');
// Disable it
$filter = $em->getFilters()->disable("locale");
Warning: Disabling and enabling filters has no effect on managed entities. If you want to refresh or reload an
object after having modified a filter or the FilterCollection, then you should clear the EntityManager and re-fetch
your entities, having the new rules for filtering applied.
9.2.29 Implementing a NamingStrategy
New in version 2.3.

Using a naming strategy you can provide rules for generating database identifiers, column or table names when the
column or table name is not given. This feature helps reduce the verbosity of the mapping document, eliminating
repetitive noise (eg: TABLE_).
Configuring a naming strategy
The default strategy used by Doctrine is quite minimal.

By default the Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\DefaultNamingStrategy uses the simple class name and the at-
tribute names to generate tables and columns.
You can specify a different strategy by calling Doctrine\ORM\Configuration#setNamingStrategy():
<?php
$namingStrategy = new MyNamingStrategy();
$configuration->setNamingStrategy($namingStrategy);
Underscore naming strategy
\Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\UnderscoreNamingStrategy is a built-in strategy.
<?php
$namingStrategy = new \Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\UnderscoreNamingStrategy(CASE_UPPER);
$configuration->setNamingStrategy($namingStrategy);
For SomeEntityName the strategy will generate the table SOME_ENTITY_NAME with the CASE_UPPER option, or
some_entity_name with the CASE_LOWER option.
Naming strategy interface
The interface Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\NamingStrategy allows you to specify a naming strategy for

database tables and columns.
<?php
/**
* Return a table name for an entity class

*
* @param string $className The fully-qualified class name
* @return string A table name
*/
function classToTableName($className);
/**
* Return a column name for a property
*
* @param string $propertyName A property
* @return string A column name
*/
function propertyToColumnName($propertyName);
/**
* Return the default reference column name
*
* @return string A column name
*/
function referenceColumnName();
/**
* Return a join column name for a property
*
* @return string A join column name
*/
function joinColumnName($propertyName, $className = null);
/**
* Return a join table name
*
* @param string $sourceEntity The source entity
* @param string $targetEntity The target entity
* @return string A join table name
*/
function joinTableName($sourceEntity, $targetEntity, $propertyName = null);
/**
* Return the foreign key column name for the given parameters
*
* @param string $entityName A entity
* @param string $referencedColumnName A property
* @return string A join column name
*/
function joinKeyColumnName($entityName, $referencedColumnName = null);
Implementing a naming strategy
If you have database naming standards, like all table names should be prefixed by the application prefix, all column
names should be lower case, you can easily achieve such standards by implementing a naming strategy.
You need to create a class which implements Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\NamingStrategy.
<?php
class MyAppNamingStrategy implements NamingStrategy

{
public function classToTableName($className)
{
return 'MyApp_' . substr($className, strrpos($className, '\\') + 1);
}
public function propertyToColumnName($propertyName)
{
return $propertyName;
}
public function referenceColumnName()
{
return 'id';
}
public function joinColumnName($propertyName, $className = null)
{
return $propertyName . '_' . $this->referenceColumnName();
}
public function joinTableName($sourceEntity, $targetEntity, $propertyName = null)
{
return strtolower($this->classToTableName($sourceEntity) . '_' .
$this->classToTableName($targetEntity));
}
public function joinKeyColumnName($entityName, $referencedColumnName = null)
{
return strtolower($this->classToTableName($entityName) . '_' .
($referencedColumnName ?: $this->referenceColumnName()));
}
}
9.2.30 Advanced Configuration
The configuration of the EntityManager requires a Doctrine\ORM\Configuration instance as well as some

database connection parameters. This example shows all the potential steps of configuration.
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Configuration;
use Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory;
// ...
if ($applicationMode == "development") {
$cache = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache;
} else {
$cache = new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcCache;
}
$config = new Configuration;

$config->setMetadataCacheImpl($cache);
$driverImpl = $config->newDefaultAnnotationDriver('/path/to/lib/MyProject/Entities');
$config->setMetadataDriverImpl($driverImpl);
$config->setQueryCacheImpl($cache);
$config->setProxyDir('/path/to/myproject/lib/MyProject/Proxies');
$config->setProxyNamespace('MyProject\Proxies');
$config->setAutoGenerateProxyClasses($applicationMode === 'development')

if ('development' === $applicationMode) {

$config->setAutoGenerateProxyClasses(ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_EVAL);
}
$connectionOptions = [
'driver' => 'pdo_sqlite',
'path' => 'database.sqlite'
];
$em = EntityManager::create($connectionOptions, $config);
Note: Do not use Doctrine without a metadata and query cache! Doctrine is optimized for working with caches. The
main parts in Doctrine that are optimized for caching are the metadata mapping information with the metadata cache
and the DQL to SQL conversions with the query cache. These 2 caches require only an absolute minimum of memory
yet they heavily improve the runtime performance of Doctrine. The recommended cache driver to use with Doctrine
is APC. APC provides you with an opcode-cache (which is highly recommended anyway) and a very fast in-memory
cache storage that you can use for the metadata and query caches as seen in the previous code snippet.
Configuration Options
The following sections describe all the configuration options available on a Doctrine\ORM\Configuration
instance.
Proxy Directory
<?php
$config->setProxyDir($dir);
Sets the directory where Doctrine generates any proxy classes. For a detailed explanation on proxy classes and how
they are used in Doctrine, refer to the “Proxy Objects” section further down.
Setting the proxy target directory will also implicitly cause a call to
Doctrine\ORM\Configuration#setAutoGenerateProxyClasses() with a value of
Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_FILE_NOT_EXISTS.
Proxy Namespace
<?php
$config->setProxyNamespace($namespace);
Sets the namespace to use for generated proxy classes. For a detailed explanation on proxy classes and how they are
used in Doctrine, refer to the “Proxy Objects” section further down.
Metadata Driver (*REQUIRED*)
<?php
$config->setMetadataDriverImpl($driver);
$config->getMetadataDriverImpl();

Gets or sets the metadata driver implementation that is used by Doctrine to acquire the object-relational metadata for
your classes.
There are currently 4 available implementations:
• Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver\AnnotationDriver
• Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver\XmlDriver
• Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver\DriverChain
Throughout the most part of this manual the AnnotationDriver is used in the examples. For information on the usage
of the XmlDriver please refer to the dedicated chapters XML Mapping.
The annotation driver can be configured with a factory method on the Doctrine\ORM\Configuration:
<?php
$driverImpl = $config->newDefaultAnnotationDriver('/path/to/lib/MyProject/Entities');
The path information to the entities is required for the annotation driver, because otherwise mass-operations on all
entities through the console could not work correctly. All of metadata drivers accept either a single directory as a
string or an array of directories. With this feature a single driver can support multiple directories of Entities.
Metadata Cache (*RECOMMENDED*)
<?php
$config->getMetadataCacheImpl();
Gets or sets the cache implementation to use for caching metadata information, that is, all the information you supply
via annotations or xml, so that they do not need to be parsed and loaded from scratch on every single request which is a
waste of resources. The cache implementation must implement the Doctrine\Common\Cache\Cache interface.
Usage of a metadata cache is highly recommended.
The recommended implementations for production are:
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcuCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\MemcacheCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\XcacheCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\RedisCache
For development you should use the Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache which only caches data on a
per-request basis.
Query Cache (*RECOMMENDED*)
<?php
$config->getQueryCacheImpl();
Gets or sets the cache implementation to use for caching DQL queries, that is, the result of a DQL parsing process
that includes the final SQL as well as meta information about how to process the SQL result set of a query. Note that

the query cache does not affect query results. You do not get stale data. This is a pure optimization cache without any
negative side-effects (except some minimal memory usage in your cache).
Usage of a query cache is highly recommended.
The recommended implementations for production are:
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\ApcuCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\MemcacheCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\XcacheCache
• Doctrine\Common\Cache\RedisCache
For development you should use the Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache which only caches data on a
per-request basis.
SQL Logger (*Optional*)
<?php
$config->setSQLLogger($logger);
$config->getSQLLogger();
Gets or sets the logger to use for logging all SQL statements executed by Doctrine. The logger class must implement
the Doctrine\DBAL\Logging\SQLLogger interface. A simple default implementation that logs to the standard
output using echo and var_dump can be found at Doctrine\DBAL\Logging\EchoSQLLogger.
Auto-generating Proxy Classes
Proxy classes can either be generated manually through the Doctrine Console or automatically at runtime by Doctrine.
The configuration option that controls this behavior is:
<?php
$config->setAutoGenerateProxyClasses($mode);
Possible values for $mode are:

• Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_FILE_NOT_EXISTS
Generate the proxy class when the proxy file does not exist. This strategy can potentially cause disk access. Note
that autoloading will be attempted before falling back to generating a proxy class: if an already existing proxy class is
found, then no file write operations will be performed.
• Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_EVAL
Generate the proxy classes and evaluate them on the fly via eval(), avoiding writing the proxies to disk. This
strategy is only sane for development and long running processes.
• Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_NEVER
This flag is deprecated, and is an alias of Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_EVAL
• Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_ALWAYS
This flag is deprecated, and is an alias of Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_FILE_NOT_EXISTS
Before v2.4, setAutoGenerateProxyClasses would accept a boolean value. This is still possible, FALSE
being equivalent to AUTOGENERATE_NEVER and TRUE to AUTOGENERATE_ALWAYS.

Manually generating Proxy Classes for performance
While the ORM can generate proxy classes when required, it is suggested to not let this happen for production envi-
ronments, as it has a major impact on your application’s performance.
In a production environment, it is highly recommended to use Doctrine\Common\Proxy\ProxyFactory::AUTOGENERATE_F
in combination with a well-configured ‘composer class autoloader<https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-
usage.md#autoloading>‘_.
Here is an example of such setup:
{
"autoload": {
"psr-4": {
"MyProject\\": "path/to/project/sources/",
"GeneratedProxies\\": "path/to/generated/proxies/"
}
}
}
You would then configure the ORM to use the "GeneratedProxies" and the "path/to/generated/
proxies/" for the proxy classes:
<?php
$config->setProxyDir('path/to/generated/proxies/');
$config->setProxyNamespace('GeneratedProxies');
To make sure proxies are never generated by Doctrine, you’d forcefully generate them during deployment operations:
$ ./vendor/bin/doctrine orm:generate-proxies
$ composer dump-autoload
Development vs Production Configuration
You should code your Doctrine2 bootstrapping with two different runtime models in mind. There are some serious
benefits of using APC or Memcache in production. In development however this will frequently give you fatal errors,
when you change your entities and the cache still keeps the outdated metadata. That is why we recommend the
ArrayCache for development.
Furthermore you should disable the Auto-generating Proxy Classes option in production.
Connection Options
The $connectionOptions passed as the first argument to EntityManager::create() has to be either an

array or an instance of Doctrine\DBAL\Connection. If an array is passed it is directly passed along to the DBAL
Factory Doctrine\DBAL\DriverManager::getConnection(). The DBAL configuration is explained in
the DBAL section.
Proxy Objects
A proxy object is an object that is put in place or used instead of the “real” object. A proxy object can add behavior to
the object being proxied without that object being aware of it. In Doctrine 2, proxy objects are used to realize several
features but mainly for transparent lazy-loading.

Proxy objects with their lazy-loading facilities help to keep the subset of objects that are already in memory connected
to the rest of the objects. This is an essential property as without it there would always be fragile partial objects at the
outer edges of your object graph.
Doctrine 2 implements a variant of the proxy pattern where it generates classes that extend your entity classes and
adds lazy-loading capabilities to them. Doctrine can then give you an instance of such a proxy class whenever you
request an object of the class being proxied. This happens in two situations:
Reference Proxies
The method EntityManager#getReference($entityName, $identifier) lets you obtain a reference

to an entity for which the identifier is known, without loading that entity from the database. This is useful, for example,
as a performance enhancement, when you want to establish an association to an entity for which you have the identifier.
You could simply do this:
<?php
// $em instanceof EntityManager, $cart instanceof MyProject\Model\Cart
// $itemId comes from somewhere, probably a request parameter
$item = $em->getReference(\MyProject\Model\Item::class, $itemId);
$cart->addItem($item);
Here, we added an Item to a Cart without loading the Item from the database. If you access any persistent state that
isn’t yet available in the Item instance, the proxying mechanism would fully initialize the object’s state transparently
from the database. Here $item is actually an instance of the proxy class that was generated for the Item class but
your code does not need to care. In fact it should not care. Proxy objects should be transparent to your code.
Association proxies
The second most important situation where Doctrine uses proxy objects is when querying for objects. Whenever you
query for an object that has a single-valued association to another object that is configured LAZY, without joining that
association in the same query, Doctrine puts proxy objects in place where normally the associated object would be.
Just like other proxies it will transparently initialize itself on first access.
Note: Joining an association in a DQL or native query essentially means eager loading of that association in that
query. This will override the ‘fetch’ option specified in the mapping for that association, but only for that query.
Multiple Metadata Sources
When using different components using Doctrine 2 you may end up with them using two different metadata drivers, for
example XML and annotationsL. You can use the DriverChain Metadata implementations to aggregate these drivers
based on namespaces:
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\Driver\DriverChain;
$chain = new DriverChain();

$chain->addDriver($xmlDriver, 'Doctrine\Tests\Models\Company');
$chain->addDriver($annotationDriver, 'Doctrine\Tests\ORM\Mapping');
Based on the namespace of the entity the loading of entities is delegated to the appropriate driver. The chain seman-
tics come from the fact that the driver loops through all namespaces and matches the entity class name against the

namespace using a strpos() === 0 call. This means you need to order the drivers correctly if sub-namespaces
use different metadata driver implementations.
Default Repository (*OPTIONAL*)
Specifies the FQCN of a subclass of the EntityRepository. That will be available for all entities without a custom
repository class.
<?php
$config->setDefaultRepositoryClassName($fqcn);
$config->getDefaultRepositoryClassName();
The default value is Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository. Any repository class must be a subclass of Enti-
tyRepository otherwise you got an ORMException
Setting up the Console
Doctrine uses the Symfony Console component for generating the command line interface. You can take a look
at the vendor/bin/doctrine.php script and the Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Console\ConsoleRunner
command for inspiration how to setup the cli.
In general the required code looks like this:
<?php
$cli = new Application('Doctrine Command Line Interface',
˓→\Doctrine\ORM\Version::VERSION);
$cli->setCatchExceptions(true);
Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Console\ConsoleRunner::addCommands($cli);
$cli->run();
9.2.31 The Second Level Cache
Note: The second level cache functionality is marked as experimental for now. It is a very complex feature and we
cannot guarantee yet that it works stable in all cases.
The Second Level Cache is designed to reduce the amount of necessary database access. It sits between your applica-
tion and the database to avoid the number of database hits as much as possible.
When turned on, entities will be first searched in cache and if they are not found, a database query will be fired and
then the entity result will be stored in a cache provider.
There are some flavors of caching available, but is better to cache read-only data.
Be aware that caches are not aware of changes made to the persistent store by another application. They can, however,
be configured to regularly expire cached data.
Caching Regions
Second level cache does not store instances of an entity, instead it caches only entity identifier and values. Each entity
class, collection association and query has its region, where values of each instance are stored.

Caching Regions are specific region into the cache provider that might store entities, collection or queries. Each cache
region resides in a specific cache namespace and has its own lifetime configuration.
Notice that when caching collection and queries only identifiers are stored. The entity values will be stored in its own
region
Something like below for an entity region :
<?php
[
'region_name:entity_1_hash' => ['id'=> 1, 'name' => 'FooBar', 'associationName'=>
˓→null],
'region_name:entity_2_hash' => ['id'=> 2, 'name' => 'Foo', 'associationName'=>['id

˓→'=>11]],
'region_name:entity_3_hash' => ['id'=> 3, 'name' => 'Bar', 'associationName'=>['id

˓→'=>22]]
];
If the entity holds a collection that also needs to be cached. An collection region could look something like :
<?php
[
'region_name:entity_1_coll_assoc_name_hash' => ['ownerId'=> 1, 'list' => [1, 2, 3]],
'region_name:entity_2_coll_assoc_name_hash' => ['ownerId'=> 2, 'list' => [2, 3]],
'region_name:entity_3_coll_assoc_name_hash' => ['ownerId'=> 3, 'list' => [2, 4]]
];
A query region might be something like :
<?php
[
'region_name:query_1_hash' => ['list' => [1, 2, 3]],
'region_name:query_2_hash' => ['list' => [2, 3]],
'region_name:query_3_hash' => ['list' => [2, 4]]
];
Note: The following data structures represents now the cache will looks like, this is not actual cached data.
Cache Regions
Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Region\DefaultRegion It’s the default implementation. A simplest cache re-

gion compatible with all doctrine-cache drivers but does not support locking.
Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Region and Doctrine\ORM\Cache\ConcurrentRegion Defines contracts that
should be implemented by a cache provider.
It allows you to provide your own cache implementation that might take advantage of specific cache driver.
If you want to support locking for READ_WRITE strategies you should implement ConcurrentRegion;
CacheRegion otherwise.
Cache region
Defines a contract for accessing a particular region.

Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Region

Defines a contract for accessing a particular cache region.

See API Doc.
Concurrent cache region
A Doctrine\ORM\Cache\ConcurrentRegion is designed to store concurrently managed

data region. By default, Doctrine provides a very simple implementation based on file locks
Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Region\FileLockRegion.
If you want to use an READ_WRITE cache, you should consider providing your own cache region.
Doctrine\ORM\Cache\ConcurrentRegion
Defines contract for concurrently managed data region.
See API Doc.
Timestamp region
Doctrine\ORM\Cache\TimestampRegion
Tracks the timestamps of the most recent updates to particular entity.
See API Doc.
Caching mode
• READ_ONLY (DEFAULT)
– Can do reads, inserts and deletes, cannot perform updates or employ any locks.
– Useful for data that is read frequently but never updated.
– Best performer.
– It is Simple.
• NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE
– Read Write Cache doesn’t employ any locks but can do reads, inserts, updates and deletes.
– Good if the application needs to update data rarely.
• READ_WRITE
– Read Write cache employs locks before update/delete.
– Use if data needs to be updated.
– Slowest strategy.
– To use it a the cache region implementation must support locking.
Built-in cached persisters
Cached persisters are responsible to access cache regions.

Cache Usage Persister

READ_ONLY Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Persister\Entity\ReadOnlyCachedEntityPersister
READ_WRITE Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Persister\Entity\ReadWriteCachedEntityPersister
NON- Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Persister\Entity\NonStrictReadWriteCachedEntityPersister
STRICT_READ_WRITE
READ_ONLY Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Persister\Collection\ReadOnlyCachedCollectionPersister
READ_WRITE Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Persister\Collection\ReadWriteCachedCollectionPersister
NON- Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Persister\Collection\NonStrictReadWriteCachedCollectionPersister
STRICT_READ_WRITE
Configuration
Doctrine allows you to specify configurations and some points of extension for the second-level-cache
Enable Second Level Cache
To enable the second-level-cache, you should provide a cache factory \Doctrine\ORM\Cache\DefaultCacheFactory

is the default implementation.
<?php
/* @var $config \Doctrine\ORM\Cache\RegionsConfiguration */
/* @var $cache \Doctrine\Common\Cache\Cache */
$factory = new \Doctrine\ORM\Cache\DefaultCacheFactory($config, $cache);
// Enable second-level-cache
$config->setSecondLevelCacheEnabled();
// Cache factory
$config->getSecondLevelCacheConfiguration()
->setCacheFactory($factory);
Cache Factory
Cache Factory is the main point of extension.

It allows you to provide a specific implementation of the following components :
• QueryCache Store and retrieve query cache results.
• CachedEntityPersister Store and retrieve entity results.
• CachedCollectionPersister Store and retrieve query results.
• EntityHydrator Transform an entity into a cache entry and cache entry into entities
• CollectionHydrator Transform a collection into a cache entry and cache entry into collection
See API Doc.

Region Lifetime
To specify a default lifetime for all regions or specify a different lifetime for a specific region.
<?php
/* @var $config \Doctrine\ORM\Configuration */
/* @var $cacheConfig \Doctrine\ORM\Cache\CacheConfiguration */
$cacheConfig = $config->getSecondLevelCacheConfiguration();
$regionConfig = $cacheConfig->getRegionsConfiguration();
// Cache Region lifetime

$regionConfig->setLifetime('my_entity_region', 3600); // Time to live for a
˓→specific region; In seconds
$regionConfig->setDefaultLifetime(7200); // Default time to live; In

˓→seconds
Cache Log
By providing a cache logger you should be able to get information about all cache operations such as hits, misses and
puts.
\Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Logging\StatisticsCacheLogger is a built-in implementation that provides
basic statistics.
<?php
/* @var $config \Doctrine\ORM\Configuration */
$logger = new \Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Logging\StatisticsCacheLogger();
// Cache logger
$config->setSecondLevelCacheEnabled(true);
$config->getSecondLevelCacheConfiguration()
->setCacheLogger($logger);
// Collect cache statistics
// Get the number of entries successfully retrieved from a specific region.

$logger->getRegionHitCount('my_entity_region');
// Get the number of cached entries *not* found in a specific region.

$logger->getRegionMissCount('my_entity_region');
// Get the number of cacheable entries put in cache.

$logger->getRegionPutCount('my_entity_region');
// Get the total number of put in all regions.

$logger->getPutCount();
// Get the total number of entries successfully retrieved from all regions.
$logger->getHitCount();
// Get the total number of cached entries *not* found in all regions.
$logger->getMissCount();
If you want to get more information you should implement \Doctrine\ORM\Cache\Logging\CacheLogger.

and collect all information you want.
See API Doc.

Entity cache definition
• Entity cache configuration allows you to define the caching strategy and region for an entity.
– usage Specifies the caching strategy: READ_ONLY, NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE, READ_WRITE. see
Caching mode
– region Optional value that specifies the name of the second level cache region.
• PHP
<?php
/**
* @Entity
* @Cache(usage="READ_ONLY", region="my_entity_region")
*/
class Country
{
/**
* @Id
* @GeneratedValue
*/
protected $id;
/**
* @Column(unique=true)
*/
protected $name;
// other properties and methods

}
• XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<doctrine-mapping xmlns="http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping
˓→" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=
˓→"http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping http://doctrine-
˓→project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping.xsd">
<entity name="Country">
<cache usage="READ_ONLY" region="my_entity_region" />
<generator strategy="IDENTITY"/>
</id>
<field name="name" type="string" column="name"/>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Association cache definition
The most common use case is to cache entities. But we can also cache relationships. It caches the primary keys of
association and cache each element will be cached into its region.
• PHP
<?php
/**

* @Entity
* @Cache("NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE")
*/
class State
{
/**
* @Id
* @GeneratedValue
*/
protected $id;
/**
* @Column(unique=true)
*/
protected $name;
/**
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Country")
* @JoinColumn(name="country_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
protected $country;
/**
* @OneToMany(targetEntity="City", mappedBy="state")
*/
protected $cities;
// other properties and methods

}
• XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<doctrine-mapping xmlns="http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping
˓→" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=
˓→"http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping http://doctrine-
˓→project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping.xsd">
<entity name="State">
<cache usage="NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE" />

<generator strategy="IDENTITY"/>
</id>
<field name="name" type="string" column="name"/>
<many-to-one field="country" target-entity="Country">

<cache usage="NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE" />
<join-columns>
<join-column name="country_id" referenced-column-name="id"/>
</join-columns>
</many-to-one>

<one-to-many field="cities" target-entity="City" mapped-by="state">

<cache usage="NONSTRICT_READ_WRITE"/>
</one-to-many>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
> Note: for this to work, the target entity must also be marked as cacheable.
Cache usage
Basic entity cache
<?php
$em->persist(new Country($name));
$em->flush(); // Hit database to insert the row and put into
˓→cache
$em->clear(); // Clear entity manager
$country1 = $em->find('Country', 1); // Retrieve item from cache
$country->setName("New Name");
$em->persist($country);
$em->flush(); // Hit database to update the row and update
˓→cache
$em->clear(); // Clear entity manager
$country2 = $em->find('Country', 1); // Retrieve item from cache

// Notice that $country1 and $country2 are not
˓→the same instance.
Association cache
<?php
// Hit database to insert the row and put into cache
$em->persist(new State($name, $country));
$em->flush();
// Clear entity manager

$em->clear();
// Retrieve item from cache

$state = $em->find('State', 1);
// Hit database to update the row and update cache entry

$state->setName("New Name");
$em->persist($state);
$em->flush();
// Create a new collection item

$city = new City($name, $state);
$state->addCity($city);
// Hit database to insert new collection item,

// put entity and collection cache into cache.

$em->persist($city);
$em->persist($state);
$em->flush();
// Clear entity manager

$em->clear();
// Retrieve item from cache

$state = $em->find('State', 1);
// Retrieve association from cache

$country = $state->getCountry();
// Retrieve collection from cache

$cities = $state->getCities();
echo $country->getName();
echo $state->getName();
// Retrieve each collection item from cache

foreach ($cities as $city) {
echo $city->getName();
}
Note: Notice that all entities should be marked as cacheable.
Using the query cache
The second level cache stores the entities, associations and collections. The query cache stores the results of the query
but as identifiers, entity values are actually stored in the 2nd level cache.
Note: Query cache should always be used in conjunction with the second-level-cache for those entities which should
be cached.
<?php
/* @var $em \Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager */
// Execute database query, store query cache and entity cache

$result1 = $em->createQuery('SELECT c FROM Country c ORDER BY c.name')
->setCacheable(true)
->getResult();
$em->clear()
// Check if query result is valid and load entities from cache

->getResult();

Cache mode
The Cache Mode controls how a particular query interacts with the second-level cache:
• Cache::MODE_GET - May read items from the cache, but will not add items.
• Cache::MODE_PUT - Will never read items from the cache, but will add items to the cache as it reads them
from the database.
• Cache::MODE_NORMAL - May read items from the cache, and add items to the cache.
• Cache::MODE_REFRESH - The query will never read items from the cache, but will refresh items to the cache
as it reads them from the database.
<?php
/* @var $em \Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager */
// Will refresh the query cache and all entities the cache as it reads from the
˓→database.

->setCacheMode(Cache::MODE_GET)
->getResult();
Note: The the default query cache mode is `Cache::MODE_NORMAL`
DELETE / UPDATE queries
DQL UPDATE / DELETE statements are ported directly into a database and bypass the second-level cache, Entities
that are already cached will NOT be invalidated. However the cached data could be evicted using the cache API or an
special query hint.
Execute the UPDATE and invalidate all cache entries using Query::HINT_CACHE_EVICT
<?php
// Execute and invalidate
$this->em->createQuery("UPDATE Entity\Country u SET u.name = 'unknown' WHERE u.id = 1
˓→")
->setHint(Query::HINT_CACHE_EVICT, true)
->execute();
Execute the UPDATE and invalidate all cache entries using the cache API
<?php
// Execute
˓→")
->execute();
// Invoke Cache API
$em->getCache()->evictEntityRegion('Entity\Country');
Execute the UPDATE and invalidate a specific cache entry using the cache API
<?php
// Execute
˓→")

->execute();
// Invoke Cache API
$em->getCache()->evictEntity('Entity\Country', 1);
Using the repository query cache
As well as Query Cache all persister queries store only identifier values for an individual query. All persister use a
single timestamps cache region keeps track of the last update for each persister, When a query is loaded from cache,
the timestamp region is checked for the last update for that persister. Using the last update timestamps as part of the
query key invalidate the cache key when an update occurs.
<?php
// load from database and store cache query key hashing the query + parameters + last
˓→timestamp cache region..
$entities = $em->getRepository('Entity\Country')->findAll();
// load from query and entities from cache..

// update the timestamp cache region for Country

$em->persist(new Country('zombieland'));
$em->flush();
$em->clear();
// Reload from database.

// At this point the query cache key if not logger valid, the select goes straight
Cache API
Caches are not aware of changes made by another application. However, you can use the cache API to check /
invalidate cache entries.
<?php
/* @var $cache \Doctrine\ORM\Cache */
$cache = $em->getCache();
$cache->containsEntity('Entity\State', 1) // Check if the cache exists

$cache->evictEntity('Entity\State', 1); // Remove an entity from cache
$cache->evictEntityRegion('Entity\State'); // Remove all entities from cache
$cache->containsCollection('Entity\State', 'cities', 1); // Check if the cache

˓→exists
$cache->evictCollection('Entity\State', 'cities', 1); // Remove an entity

˓→collection from cache
$cache->evictCollectionRegion('Entity\State', 'cities'); // Remove all collections

˓→from cache

Limitations
Composite primary key
Composite primary key are supported by second level cache, however when one of the keys is an association the
cached entity should always be retrieved using the association identifier. For performance reasons the cache API does
not extract from composite primary key.
<?php
/**
* @Entity
*/
class Reference
{
/**
* @Id
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Article", inversedBy="references")
* @JoinColumn(name="source_id", referencedColumnName="article_id")
*/
private $source;
/**
* @Id
* @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Article")
* @JoinColumn(name="target_id", referencedColumnName="article_id")
*/
private $target;
}
// Supported
/* @var $article Article */
// Supported
/* @var $article Article */
$article = $em->find('Article', $article);
// Supported
$id = array('source' => 1, 'target' => 2);
$reference = $em->find('Reference', $id);
// NOT Supported
$id = array('source' => new Article(1), 'target' => new Article(2));
$reference = $em->find('Reference', $id);
Distributed environments
Some cache driver are not meant to be used in a distributed environment. Load-balancer for distributing workloads
across multiple computing resources should be used in conjunction with distributed caching system such as mem-
cached, redis, riak . . .
Caches should be used with care when using a load-balancer if you don’t share the cache. While using APC or any
file based cache update occurred in a specific machine would not reflect to the cache in other machines.

Paginator
Count queries generated by Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Pagination\Paginator are not cached by second-level

cache. Although entities and query result are cached count queries will hit the database every time.
9.2.32 Security
The Doctrine library is operating very close to your database and as such needs to handle and make assumptions about
SQL injection vulnerabilities.
It is vital that you understand how Doctrine approaches security, because we cannot protect you from SQL injection.
Please also read the documentation chapter on Security in Doctrine DBAL. This page only handles Security issues in
the ORM.
• [DBAL Security Page](https://github.com/doctrine/dbal/blob/master/docs/en/reference/security.rst)
If you find a Security bug in Doctrine, please report it on Jira and change the Security Level to “Security Issues”. It
will be visible to Doctrine Core developers and you only.
User input and Doctrine ORM
The ORM is much better at protecting against SQL injection than the DBAL alone. You can consider the following
APIs to be safe from SQL injection:
• \Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager#find() and getReference().
• All values on Objects inserted and updated through Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager#persist()
• All find methods on Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository.
• User Input set to DQL Queries or QueryBuilder methods through
– setParameter() or variants
– setMaxResults()
– setFirstResult()
• Queries through the Criteria API on Doctrine\ORM\PersistentCollection and
Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository.
You are NOT safe from SQL injection when using user input with:
• Expression API of Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder
• Concatenating user input into DQL SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE statements or Native SQL.
This means SQL injections can only occur with Doctrine ORM when working with Query Objects of any kind. The
safe rule is to always use prepared statement parameters for user objects when using a Query object.
Warning: Insecure code follows, don’t copy paste this.
The following example shows insecure DQL usage:
<?php
// INSECURE
$dql = "SELECT u

FROM MyProject\Entity\User u
WHERE u.status = '" . $_GET['status'] . "'
ORDER BY " . $_GET['orderField'] . " ASC";
For Doctrine there is absolutely no way to find out which parts of $dql are from user input and which are not, even
if we have our own parsing process this is technically impossible. The correct way is:
<?php
$orderFieldWhitelist = array('email', 'username');

$orderField = "email";
if (in_array($_GET['orderField'], $orderFieldWhitelist)) {
$orderField = $_GET['orderField'];
}
$dql = "SELECT u
FROM MyProject\Entity\User u
WHERE u.status = ?1
ORDER BY u." . $orderField . " ASC";
$query->setParameter(1, $_GET['status']);
Preventing Mass Assignment Vulnerabilities
ORMs are very convenient for CRUD applications and Doctrine is no exception. However CRUD apps are often
vulnerable to mass assignment security problems when implemented naively.
Doctrine is not vulnerable to this problem out of the box, but you can easily make your entities vulnerable to mass
assignment when you add methods of the kind updateFromArray() or updateFromJson() to them. A vul-
nerable entity might look like this:
<?php
/**
* @Entity
*/
class InsecureEntity
{
private $id;
/** @Column */
private $email;
/** @Column(type="boolean") */
private $isAdmin;
public function fromArray(array $userInput)

{
foreach ($userInput as $key => $value) {
$this->$key = $value;
}
}
}
Now the possiblity of mass-asignment exists on this entity and can be exploitet by attackers to set the “isAdmin” flag
to true on any object when you pass the whole request data to this method like:

<?php
$entity = new InsecureEntity();
$entity->fromArray($_POST);
$entityManager->persist($entity);
You can spot this problem in this very simple example easily. However in combination with frameworks and form
libraries it might not be so obvious when this issue arises. Be careful to avoid this kind of mistake.
How to fix this problem? You should always have a whitelist of allowed key to set via mass assignment functions.
public function fromArray(array $userInput, $allowedFields = array())

{
foreach ($userInput as $key => $value) {
if (in_array($key, $allowedFields)) {
$this->$key = $value;
}
}
}
9.3 Cookbook
9.3.1 Aggregate Fields
Section author: Benjamin Eberlei <kontakt@beberlei.de>

You will often come across the requirement to display aggregate values of data that can be computed by using the
MIN, MAX, COUNT or SUM SQL functions. For any ORM this is a tricky issue traditionally. Doctrine 2 offers
several ways to get access to these values and this article will describe all of them from different perspectives.
You will see that aggregate fields can become very explicit features in your domain model and how this potentially
complex business rules can be easily tested.
An example model
Say you want to model a bank account and all their entries. Entries into the account can either be of positive or negative
money values. Each account has a credit limit and the account is never allowed to have a balance below that value.
For simplicity we live in a world were money is composed of integers only. Also we omit the receiver/sender name,
stated reason for transfer and the execution date. These all would have to be added on the Entry object.
Our entities look like:
<?php
namespace Bank\Entities;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Account
{
9.3. Cookbook 275

/** @ORM\Id @ORM\GeneratedValue @ORM\Column(type="integer") */

private $id;
/** @ORM\Column(type="string", unique=true) */

private $no;
/** @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Entry", mappedBy="account", cascade={"persist"})

˓→ */
private $entries;
private $maxCredit = 0;
public function __construct($no, $maxCredit = 0)

{
$this->no = $no;
$this->maxCredit = $maxCredit;
$this->entries = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
}
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Entry
{
/** @ORM\Id @ORM\GeneratedValue @ORM\Column(type="integer") */
private $id;
/** @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Account", inversedBy="entries") */

private $account;
private $amount;
public function __construct($account, $amount)

{
$this->account = $account;
$this->amount = $amount;
// more stuff here, from/to whom, stated reason, execution date and such
}
public function getAmount()

{
return $this->amount;
}
}
Using DQL
The Doctrine Query Language allows you to select for aggregate values computed from fields of your Domain Model.
You can select the current balance of your account by calling:
<?php
$dql = "SELECT SUM(e.amount) AS balance FROM Bank\Entities\Entry e " .
"WHERE e.account = ?1";

$balance = $em->createQuery($dql)
->setParameter(1, $myAccountId)
->getSingleScalarResult();
The $em variable in this (and forthcoming) example holds the Doctrine EntityManager. We create a query for the
SUM of all amounts (negative amounts are withdraws) and retrieve them as a single scalar result, essentially return
only the first column of the first row.
This approach is simple and powerful, however it has a serious drawback. We have to execute a specific query for the
balance whenever we need it.
To implement a powerful domain model we would rather have access to the balance from our Account entity during
all times (even if the Account was not persisted in the database before!).
Also an additional requirement is the max credit per Account rule.
We cannot reliably enforce this rule in our Account entity with the DQL retrieval of the balance. There are many
different ways to retrieve accounts. We cannot guarantee that we can execute the aggregation query for all these
use-cases, let alone that a userland programmer checks this balance against newly added entries.
Using your Domain Model
Account and all the Entry instances are connected through a collection, which means we can compute this value
at runtime:
<?php
class Account
{
// .. previous code
public function getBalance()
{
$balance = 0;
foreach ($this->entries as $entry) {
$balance += $entry->getAmount();
}
return $balance;
}
}
Now we can always call Account::getBalance() to access the current account balance.
To enforce the max credit rule we have to implement the “Aggregate Root” pattern as described in Eric Evans book
on Domain Driven Design. Described with one sentence, an aggregate root controls the instance creation, access and
manipulation of its children.
In our case we want to enforce that new entries can only added to the Account by using a designated method. The
Account is the aggregate root of this relation. We can also enforce the correctness of the bi-directional Account
<-> Entry relation with this method:
<?php
class Account
{
public function addEntry($amount)
{
$this->assertAcceptEntryAllowed($amount);
$e = new Entry($this, $amount);

$this->entries[] = $e;
9.3. Cookbook 277

return $e;
}
}
Now look at the following test-code for our entities:
<?php
class AccountTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
public function testAddEntry()
{
$account = new Account("123456", $maxCredit = 200);
$this->assertEquals(0, $account->getBalance());
$account->addEntry(500);
$this->assertEquals(500, $account->getBalance());
$account->addEntry(-700);
$this->assertEquals(-200, $account->getBalance());
}
public function testExceedMaxLimit()

{
$account = new Account("123456", $maxCredit = 200);
$this->setExpectedException("Exception");
}
}
To enforce our rule we can now implement the assertion in Account::addEntry:
<?php
class Account
{
private function assertAcceptEntryAllowed($amount)
{
$futureBalance = $this->getBalance() + $amount;
$allowedMinimalBalance = ($this->maxCredit * -1);
if ($futureBalance < $allowedMinimalBalance) {
throw new Exception("Credit Limit exceeded, entry is not allowed!");
}
}
}
We haven’t talked to the entity manager for persistence of our account example before. You can call
EntityManager::persist($account) and then EntityManager::flush() at any point to save the
account to the database. All the nested Entry objects are automatically flushed to the database also.
<?php
$account = new Account("123456", 200);
$account->addEntry(500);
$em->persist($account);
$em->flush();
The current implementation has a considerable drawback. To get the balance, we have to initialize the complete
Account::$entries collection, possibly a very large one. This can considerably hurt the performance of your

application.
Using an Aggregate Field
To overcome the previously mentioned issue (initializing the whole entries collection) we want to add an
aggregate field called “balance” on the Account and adjust the code in Account::getBalance() and
Account:addEntry():
<?php
class Account
{
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
private $balance = 0;
public function getBalance()

{
return $this->balance;
}
public function addEntry($amount)

{
$this->assertAcceptEntryAllowed($amount);
$e = new Entry($this, $amount);

$this->entries[] = $e;
$this->balance += $amount;
return $e;
}
}
This is a very simple change, but all the tests still pass. Our account entities return the correct balance. Now calling
the Account::getBalance() method will not occur the overhead of loading all entries anymore. Adding a new
Entry to the Account::$entities will also not initialize the collection internally.
Adding a new entry is therefore very performant and explicitly hooked into the domain model. It will only update the
account with the current balance and insert the new entry into the database.
Tackling Race Conditions with Aggregate Fields
Whenever you denormalize your database schema race-conditions can potentially lead to inconsistent state. See this
example:
<?php
// The Account $accId has a balance of 0 and a max credit limit of 200:
// request 1 account
$account1 = $em->find('Bank\Entities\Account', $accId);
// request 2 account
$account2 = $em->find('Bank\Entities\Account', $accId);
$account1->addEntry(-200);
$account2->addEntry(-200);
// now request 1 and 2 both flush the changes.
9.3. Cookbook 279

The aggregate field Account::$balance is now -200, however the SUM over all entries amounts yields -400. A
violation of our max credit rule.
You can use both optimistic or pessimistic locking to save-guard your aggregate fields against this kind of race-
conditions. Reading Eric Evans DDD carefully he mentions that the “Aggregate Root” (Account in our example)
needs a locking mechanism.
Optimistic locking is as easy as adding a version column:
<?php
class Account
{
/** @ORM\Column(type="integer") @ORM\Version */
private $version;
}
The previous example would then throw an exception in the face of whatever request saves the entity last (and would
create the inconsistent state).
Pessimistic locking requires an additional flag set on the EntityManager::find() call, enabling write locking
directly in the database using a FOR UPDATE.
<?php
$account = $em->find('Bank\Entities\Account', $accId, LockMode::PESSIMISTIC_READ);
Keeping Updates and Deletes in Sync
The example shown in this article does not allow changes to the value in Entry, which considerably simplifies the
effort to keep Account::$balance in sync. If your use-case allows fields to be updated or related entities to be
removed you have to encapsulate this logic in your “Aggregate Root” entity and adjust the aggregate field accordingly.
Conclusion
This article described how to obtain aggregate values using DQL or your domain model. It showed how you can
easily add an aggregate field that offers serious performance benefits over iterating all the related objects that make
up an aggregate value. Finally I showed how you can ensure that your aggregate fields do not get out of sync due to
race-conditions and concurrent access.
9.3.2 Custom Mapping Types
Doctrine allows you to create new mapping types. This can come in handy when you’re missing a specific mapping
type or when you want to replace the existing implementation of a mapping type.
In order to create a new mapping type you need to subclass Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type and imple-
ment/override the methods as you wish. Here is an example skeleton of such a custom type class:
<?php
namespace My\Project\Types;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Platforms\AbstractPlatform;
/**

* My custom datatype.
*/
class MyType extends Type
{
const MYTYPE = 'mytype'; // modify to match your type name
public function getSQLDeclaration(array $fieldDeclaration, AbstractPlatform

˓→$platform)
{
// return the SQL used to create your column type. To create a portable
˓→column type, use the $platform.
public function convertToPHPValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)

{
// This is executed when the value is read from the database. Make your
˓→conversions here, optionally using the $platform.
public function convertToDatabaseValue($value, AbstractPlatform $platform)

{
// This is executed when the value is written to the database. Make your
˓→conversions here, optionally using the $platform.

{
return self::MYTYPE; // modify to match your constant name
}
}
Note: The following assumptions are applied to mapping types by the ORM:
• The UnitOfWork never passes values to the database convert method that did not change in the request.
• The UnitOfWork internally assumes that entity identifiers are castable to string. Hence, when using custom
types that map to PHP objects as IDs, such objects must implement the __toString() magic method.
When you have implemented the type you still need to let Doctrine know about it. This can be achieved through the
Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type#addType($name, $className) method. See the following example:
<?php
// in bootstrapping code
// ...
// ...
// Register my type
Type::addType('mytype', 'My\Project\Types\MyType');
To convert the underlying database type of your new “mytype” directly into an instance of MyType when performing
schema operations, the type has to be registered with the database platform as well:
9.3. Cookbook 281

<?php
$conn = $em->getConnection();
$conn->getDatabasePlatform()->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('db_mytype', 'mytype');
When registering the custom types in the configuration you specify a unique name for the mapping type and map that
to the corresponding fully qualified class name. Now the new type can be used when mapping columns:
<?php
class MyPersistentClass
{
/** @ORM\Column(type="mytype") */
private $field;
}
9.3.3 Persisting the Decorator Pattern
Section author: Chris Woodford <chris.woodford@gmail.com>

This recipe will show you a simple example of how you can use Doctrine 2 to persist an implementation of the
Decorator Pattern
Component
The Component class needs to be persisted, so it’s going to be an Entity. As the top of the inheritance hierar-
chy, it’s going to have to define the persistent inheritance. For this example, we will use Single Table Inheritance,
but Class Table Inheritance would work as well. In the discriminator map, we will define two concrete subclasses,
ConcreteComponent and ConcreteDecorator.
<?php
namespace Test;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\InheritanceType("SINGLE_TABLE")
* @ORM\DiscriminatorColumn(name="discr", type="string")
* @ORM\DiscriminatorMap({
* "cc" = "Test\Component\ConcreteComponent",
* "cd" = "Test\Decorator\ConcreteDecorator"
* })
*/
abstract class Component
{
/**
* @ORM\Id @ORM\Column(type="integer")
* @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
protected $id;
/** @ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=true) */

protected $name;
/**

* Get id
* @return integer $id
*/
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* Set name
* @param string $name
*/
{
}
/**
* Get name
* @return string $name
*/
{
return $this->name;
}
ConcreteComponent
The ConcreteComponent class is pretty simple and doesn’t do much more than extend the abstract Component
class (only for the purpose of keeping this example simple).
<?php
namespace Test\Component;

use Test\Component;
/** @ORM\Entity */
class ConcreteComponent extends Component
{}
Decorator
The Decorator class doesn’t need to be persisted, but it does need to define an association with a persisted Entity.
We can use a MappedSuperclass for this.
<?php
namespace Test;
9.3. Cookbook 283

/** @ORM\MappedSuperclass */
abstract class Decorator extends Component
{
/**
* @ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="Test\Component", cascade={"all"})
* @ORM\JoinColumn(name="decorates", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
protected $decorates;
/**
* initialize the decorator
* @param Component $c
*/
public function __construct(Component $c)
{
$this->setDecorates($c);
}
/**
* (non-PHPdoc)
* @see Test.Component::getName()
*/
{
return 'Decorated ' . $this->getDecorates()->getName();
}
/**
* the component being decorated
* @return Component
*/
protected function getDecorates()
{
return $this->decorates;
}
/**
* sets the component being decorated
* @param Component $c
*/
protected function setDecorates(Component $c)
{
$this->decorates = $c;
}
All operations on the Decorator (i.e. persist, remove, etc) will cascade from the Decorator to the Component.
This means that when we persist a Decorator, Doctrine will take care of persisting the chain of decorated objects
for us. A Decorator can be treated exactly as a Component when it comes time to persisting it.
The Decorator's constructor accepts an instance of a Component, as defined by the Decorator pattern. The
setDecorates/getDecorates methods have been defined as protected to hide the fact that a Decorator is decorating a
Component and keeps the Component interface and the Decorator interface identical.
To illustrate the intended result of the Decorator pattern, the getName() method has been overridden to append a
string to the Component's getName() method.

ConcreteDecorator
The final class required to complete a simple implementation of the Decorator pattern is the ConcreteDecorator.
In order to further illustrate how the Decorator can alter data as it moves through the chain of decoration, a new
field, “special”, has been added to this class. The getName() has been overridden and appends the value of the
getSpecial() method to its return value.
<?php
namespace Test\Decorator;

use Test\Decorator;
/** @ORM\Entity */
class ConcreteDecorator extends Decorator
{
/** @ORM\Column(type="string", nullable=true) */

protected $special;
/**
* Set special
* @param string $special
*/
public function setSpecial($special)
{
$this->special = $special;
}
/**
* Get special
* @return string $special
*/
public function getSpecial()
{
return $this->special;
}
/**
* (non-PHPdoc)
* @see Test.Component::getName()
*/
{
return '[' . $this->getSpecial()
. '] ' . parent::getName();
}
Examples
Here is an example of how to persist and retrieve your decorated objects

<?php
9.3. Cookbook 285

use Test\Component\ConcreteComponent,
Test\Decorator\ConcreteDecorator;
// assumes Doctrine 2 is configured and an instance of

// an EntityManager is available as $em
// create a new concrete component

$c = new ConcreteComponent();
$c->setName('Test Component 1');
$em->persist($c); // assigned unique ID = 1
// create a new concrete decorator

$c = new ConcreteComponent();
$c->setName('Test Component 2');
$d = new ConcreteDecorator($c);
$d->setSpecial('Really');
$em->persist($d);
// assigns c as unique ID = 2, and d as unique ID = 3
$em->flush();
$c = $em->find('Test\Component', 1);
$d = $em->find('Test\Component', 3);
echo get_class($c);
// prints: Test\Component\ConcreteComponent
echo $c->getName();
// prints: Test Component 1
echo get_class($d)
// prints: Test\Component\ConcreteDecorator
echo $d->getName();
// prints: [Really] Decorated Test Component 2
9.3.4 Extending DQL in Doctrine 2: Custom AST Walkers

The Doctrine Query Language (DQL) is a proprietary sql-dialect that substitutes tables and columns for Entity names
and their fields. Using DQL you write a query against the database using your entities. With the help of the metadata
you can write very concise, compact and powerful queries that are then translated into SQL by the Doctrine ORM.
In Doctrine 1 the DQL language was not implemented using a real parser. This made modifications of the DQL by the
user impossible. Doctrine 2 in contrast has a real parser for the DQL language, which transforms the DQL statement
into an Abstract Syntax Tree and generates the appropriate SQL statement for it. Since this process is deterministic
Doctrine heavily caches the SQL that is generated from any given DQL query, which reduces the performance overhead
of the parsing process to zero.
You can modify the Abstract syntax tree by hooking into DQL parsing process by adding a Custom Tree Walker. A
walker is an interface that walks each node of the Abstract syntax tree, thereby generating the SQL statement.
There are two types of custom tree walkers that you can hook into the DQL parser:
• An output walker. This one actually generates the SQL, and there is only ever one of them. We implemented
the default SqlWalker implementation for it.

• A tree walker. There can be many tree walkers, they cannot generate the sql, however they can modify the AST
before its rendered to sql.
Now this is all awfully technical, so let me come to some use-cases fast to keep you motivated. Using walker imple-
mentation you can for example:
• Modify the AST to generate a Count Query to be used with a paginator for any given DQL query.
• Modify the Output Walker to generate vendor-specific SQL (instead of ANSI).
• Modify the AST to add additional where clauses for specific entities (example ACL, country-specific content. . . )
• Modify the Output walker to pretty print the SQL for debugging purposes.
In this cookbook-entry I will show examples on the first two points. There are probably much more use-cases.
Generic count query for pagination
Say you have a blog and posts all with one category and one author. A query for the front-page or any archive page
might look something like:
SELECT p, c, a FROM BlogPost p JOIN p.category c JOIN p.author a WHERE ...
Now in this query the blog post is the root entity, meaning its the one that is hydrated directly from the query and
returned as an array of blog posts. In contrast the comment and author are loaded for deeper use in the object tree.
A pagination for this query would want to approximate the number of posts that match the WHERE clause of this
query to be able to predict the number of pages to show to the user. A draft of the DQL query for pagination would
look like:
SELECT count(DISTINCT p.id) FROM BlogPost p JOIN p.category c JOIN p.author a WHERE ..
˓→.
Now you could go and write each of these queries by hand, or you can use a tree walker to modify the AST for you.
Lets see how the API would look for this use-case:
<?php
$pageNum = 1;
$query = $em->createQuery($dql);
$query->setFirstResult( ($pageNum-1) * 20)->setMaxResults(20);
$totalResults = Paginate::count($query);
$results = $query->getResult();
The Paginate::count(Query $query) looks like:
<?php
class Paginate
{
static public function count(Query $query)
{
/* @var $countQuery Query */
$countQuery = clone $query;
$countQuery->setHint(Query::HINT_CUSTOM_TREE_WALKERS, array(
˓→ 'DoctrineExtensions\Paginate\CountSqlWalker'));
$countQuery->setFirstResult(null)->setMaxResults(null);
return $countQuery->getSingleScalarResult();
9.3. Cookbook 287

}
}
It clones the query, resets the limit clause first and max results and registers the CountSqlWalker custom tree
walker which will modify the AST to execute a count query. The walkers implementation is:
<?php
class CountSqlWalker extends TreeWalkerAdapter
{
/**
* Walks down a SelectStatement AST node, thereby generating the appropriate SQL.
*
* @return string The SQL.
*/
public function walkSelectStatement(SelectStatement $AST)
{
$parent = null;
$parentName = null;
foreach ($this->getQueryComponents() as $dqlAlias => $qComp) {
if ($qComp['parent'] === null && $qComp['nestingLevel'] == 0) {
$parent = $qComp;
$parentName = $dqlAlias;
break;
}
}
$pathExpression = new PathExpression(

PathExpression::TYPE_STATE_FIELD | PathExpression::TYPE_SINGLE_VALUED_
˓→ASSOCIATION, $parentName,
$parent['metadata']->getSingleIdentifierFieldName()
);
$pathExpression->type = PathExpression::TYPE_STATE_FIELD;
$AST->selectClause->selectExpressions = array(
new SelectExpression(
new AggregateExpression('count', $pathExpression, true), null
)
);
}
}
This will delete any given select expressions and replace them with a distinct count query for the root entities primary
key. This will only work if your entity has only one identifier field (composite keys won’t work).
Modify the Output Walker to generate Vendor specific SQL
Most RMDBS have vendor-specific features for optimizing select query execution plans. You can
write your own output walker to introduce certain keywords using the Query Hint API. A query hint
can be set via Query::setHint($name, $value) as shown in the previous example with the
HINT_CUSTOM_TREE_WALKERS query hint.
We will implement a custom Output Walker that allows to specify the SQL_NO_CACHE query hint.
<?php
$dql = "SELECT p, c, a FROM BlogPost p JOIN p.category c JOIN p.author a WHERE ...";
$query = $m->createQuery($dql);
$query->setHint(Query::HINT_CUSTOM_OUTPUT_WALKER,
˓→'DoctrineExtensions\Query\MysqlWalker');

$query->setHint("mysqlWalker.sqlNoCache", true);
$results = $query->getResult();
Our MysqlWalker will extend the default SqlWalker. We will modify the generation of the SELECT clause,
adding the SQL_NO_CACHE on those queries that need it:
<?php
class MysqlWalker extends SqlWalker
{
/**
* Walks down a SelectClause AST node, thereby generating the appropriate SQL.
*
* @param $selectClause
* @return string The SQL.
*/
public function walkSelectClause($selectClause)
{
$sql = parent::walkSelectClause($selectClause);
if ($this->getQuery()->getHint('mysqlWalker.sqlNoCache') === true) {

if ($selectClause->isDistinct) {
$sql = str_replace('SELECT DISTINCT', 'SELECT DISTINCT SQL_NO_CACHE',
˓→$sql);
} else {
$sql = str_replace('SELECT', 'SELECT SQL_NO_CACHE', $sql);
}
}
return $sql;
}
}
Writing extensions to the Output Walker requires a very deep understanding of the DQL Parser and Walkers, but may
offer your huge benefits with using vendor specific features. This would still allow you write DQL queries instead of
NativeQueries to make use of vendor specific features.
9.3.5 DQL User Defined Functions

By default DQL supports a limited subset of all the vendor-specific SQL functions common between all the vendors.
However in many cases once you have decided on a specific database vendor, you will never change it during the life
of your project. This decision for a specific vendor potentially allows you to make use of powerful SQL features that
are unique to the vendor.
It is worth to mention that Doctrine 2 also allows you to handwrite your SQL instead of extending the DQL parser.
Extending DQL is sort of an advanced extension point. You can map arbitrary SQL to your objects and gain access
to vendor specific functionalities using the EntityManager#createNativeQuery() API as described in the
Native Query chapter.
The DQL Parser has hooks to register functions that can then be used in your DQL queries and transformed into
SQL, allowing to extend Doctrines Query capabilities to the vendors strength. This post explains the Used-Defined
Functions API (UDF) of the Dql Parser and shows some examples to give you some hints how you would extend DQL.
There are three types of functions in DQL, those that return a numerical value, those that return a string and those that
return a Date. Your custom method has to be registered as either one of those. The return type information is used by
9.3. Cookbook 289

the DQL parser to check possible syntax errors during the parsing process, for example using a string function return
value in a math expression.
Registering your own DQL functions
You can register your functions adding them to the ORM configuration:
<?php
$config->addCustomStringFunction($name, $class);
$config->addCustomNumericFunction($name, $class);
$config->addCustomDatetimeFunction($name, $class);
$em = EntityManager::create($dbParams, $config);
The $name is the name the function will be referred to in the DQL query. $class is a string of a class-name which
has to extend Doctrine\ORM\Query\Node\FunctionNode. This is a class that offers all the necessary API
and methods to implement a UDF.
Instead of providing the function class name, you can also provide a callable that returns the function object:
<?php
$config->addCustomStringFunction($name, function () {
return new MyCustomFunction();
});
In this post we will implement some MySql specific Date calculation methods, which are quite handy in my opinion:
Date Diff
Mysql’s DateDiff function takes two dates as argument and calculates the difference in days with date1-date2.
The DQL parser is a top-down recursive descent parser to generate the Abstract-Syntax Tree (AST) and uses a Tree-
Walker approach to generate the appropriate SQL from the AST. This makes reading the Parser/TreeWalker code
manageable in a finite amount of time.
The FunctionNode class I referred to earlier requires you to implement two methods, one for the parsing process
(obviously) called parse and one for the TreeWalker process called getSql(). I show you the code for the DateDiff
method and discuss it step by step:
<?php
/**
* DateDiffFunction ::= "DATEDIFF" "(" ArithmeticPrimary "," ArithmeticPrimary ")"
*/
class DateDiff extends FunctionNode
{
// (1)
public $firstDateExpression = null;
public $secondDateExpression = null;

{
$parser->match(Lexer::T_IDENTIFIER); // (2)
$parser->match(Lexer::T_OPEN_PARENTHESIS); // (3)
$this->firstDateExpression = $parser->ArithmeticPrimary(); // (4)
$parser->match(Lexer::T_COMMA); // (5)

$this->secondDateExpression = $parser->ArithmeticPrimary(); // (6)

$parser->match(Lexer::T_CLOSE_PARENTHESIS); // (3)
}

{
return 'DATEDIFF(' .
$this->firstDateExpression->dispatch($sqlWalker) . ', ' .
$this->secondDateExpression->dispatch($sqlWalker) .
')'; // (7)
}
}
The Parsing process of the DATEDIFF function is going to find two expressions the date1 and the date2 values, whose
AST Node representations will be saved in the variables of the DateDiff FunctionNode instance at (1).
The parse() method has to cut the function call “DATEDIFF” and its argument into pieces. Since the parser detects
the function using a lookahead the T_IDENTIFIER of the function name has to be taken from the stack (2), followed
by a detection of the arguments in (4)-(6). The opening and closing parenthesis have to be detected also. This happens
during the Parsing process and leads to the generation of a DateDiff FunctionNode somewhere in the AST of the dql
statement.
The ArithmeticPrimary method call is the most common denominator of valid EBNF tokens taken from the
DQL EBNF grammar that matches our requirements for valid input into the DateDiff Dql function. Picking the right
tokens for your methods is a tricky business, but the EBNF grammar is pretty helpful finding it, as is looking at the
Parser source code.
Now in the TreeWalker process we have to pick up this node and generate SQL from it, which apparently is quite easy
looking at the code in (7). Since we don’t know which type of AST Node the first and second Date expression are we
are just dispatching them back to the SQL Walker to generate SQL from and then wrap our DATEDIFF function call
around this output.
Now registering this DateDiff FunctionNode with the ORM using:
<?php
$config->addCustomStringFunction('DATEDIFF', 'DoctrineExtensions\Query\MySql\DateDiff
˓→');
We can do fancy stuff like:
SELECT p FROM DoctrineExtensions\Query\BlogPost p WHERE DATEDIFF(CURRENT_TIME(), p.

˓→created) < 7
Date Add
Often useful it the ability to do some simple date calculations in your DQL query using MySql’s DATE_ADD function.
I’ll skip the blah and show the code for this function:
<?php
/**
* DateAddFunction ::=
* "DATE_ADD" "(" ArithmeticPrimary ", INTERVAL" ArithmeticPrimary Identifier ")"
*/
class DateAdd extends FunctionNode
{
9.3. Cookbook 291

public $firstDateExpression = null;

public $intervalExpression = null;
public $unit = null;

{
$parser->match(Lexer::T_OPEN_PARENTHESIS);
$this->firstDateExpression = $parser->ArithmeticPrimary();
$parser->match(Lexer::T_COMMA);
$this->intervalExpression = $parser->ArithmeticPrimary();
/* @var $lexer Lexer */

$lexer = $parser->getLexer();
$this->unit = $lexer->token['value'];
$parser->match(Lexer::T_CLOSE_PARENTHESIS);
}

{
return 'DATE_ADD(' .
$this->firstDateExpression->dispatch($sqlWalker) . ', INTERVAL ' .
$this->intervalExpression->dispatch($sqlWalker) . ' ' . $this->unit .
')';
}
}
The only difference compared to the DATEDIFF here is, we additionally need the Lexer to access the value of the
T_IDENTIFIER token for the Date Interval unit, for example the MONTH in:
SELECT p FROM DoctrineExtensions\Query\BlogPost p WHERE DATE_ADD(CURRENT_TIME(),

˓→INTERVAL 4 MONTH) > p.created
The above method now only supports the specification using INTERVAL, to also allow a real date in DATE_ADD we
need to add some decision logic to the parsing process (makes up for a nice exercise).
Now as you see, the Parsing process doesn’t catch all the possible SQL errors, here we don’t match for all the valid
inputs for the interval unit. However where necessary we rely on the database vendors SQL parser to show us further
errors in the parsing process, for example if the Unit would not be one of the supported values by MySql.
Conclusion
Now that you all know how you can implement vendor specific SQL functionalities in DQL, we would be excited
to see user extensions that add vendor specific function packages, for example more math functions, XML + GIS
Support, Hashing functions and so on.
For 2.0 we will come with the current set of functions, however for a future version we will re-evaluate if we can
abstract even more vendor sql functions and extend the DQL languages scope.

Code for this Extension to DQL and other Doctrine Extensions can be found in my Github DoctrineExtensions repos-
itory.
9.3.6 Implementing ArrayAccess for Domain Objects
Section author: Roman Borschel (roman@code-factory.org)

This recipe will show you how to implement ArrayAccess for your domain objects in order to allow more uniform
access, for example in templates. In these examples we will implement ArrayAccess on a Layer Supertype for all our
domain objects.
Option 1
In this implementation we will make use of PHPs highly dynamic nature to dynamically access properties of a subtype
in a supertype at runtime. Note that this implementation has 2 main caveats:
• It will not work with private fields
• It will not go through any getters/setters
<?php
abstract class DomainObject implements ArrayAccess
{
public function offsetExists($offset) {
return isset($this->$offset);
}
public function offsetSet($offset, $value) {

$this->$offset = $value;
}
public function offsetGet($offset) {

return $this->$offset;
}
public function offsetUnset($offset) {

$this->$offset = null;
}
}
Option 2
In this implementation we will dynamically invoke getters/setters. Again we use PHPs dynamic nature to invoke
methods on a subtype from a supertype at runtime. This implementation has the following caveats:
• It relies on a naming convention
• The semantics of offsetExists can differ
• offsetUnset will not work with typehinted setters
<?php
{
// In this example we say that exists means it is not null
9.3. Cookbook 293

$value = $this->{"get$offset"}();
return $value !== null;
}

$this->{"set$offset"}($value);
}

return $this->{"get$offset"}();
}

$this->{"set$offset"}(null);
}
}
Read-only
You can slightly tweak option 1 or option 2 in order to make array access read-only. This will also circumvent some of
the caveats of each option. Simply make offsetSet and offsetUnset throw an exception (i.e. BadMethodCallException).
<?php
{
// option 1 or option 2
}

throw new BadMethodCallException("Array access of class " . get_class($this) .
˓→ " is read-only!");
}

// option 1 or option 2
}

throw new BadMethodCallException("Array access of class " . get_class($this) .
˓→ " is read-only!");
}
}
9.3.7 Implementing the Notify ChangeTracking Policy
Section author: Roman Borschel (roman@code-factory.org)

The NOTIFY change-tracking policy is the most effective change-tracking policy provided by Doctrine but it requires
some boilerplate code. This recipe will show you how this boilerplate code should look like. We will implement it on
a Layer Supertype for all our domain objects.

Implementing NotifyPropertyChanged
The NOTIFY policy is based on the assumption that the entities notify interested listeners of changes to their properties.
For that purpose, a class that wants to use this policy needs to implement the NotifyPropertyChanged interface
from the Doctrine\Common namespace.
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\NotifyPropertyChanged;
use Doctrine\Common\PropertyChangedListener;
abstract class DomainObject implements NotifyPropertyChanged

{
private $listeners = array();
public function addPropertyChangedListener(PropertyChangedListener $listener) {

$this->listeners[] = $listener;
}
/** Notifies listeners of a change. */

protected function onPropertyChanged($propName, $oldValue, $newValue) {
if ($this->listeners) {
foreach ($this->listeners as $listener) {
$listener->propertyChanged($this, $propName, $oldValue, $newValue);
}
}
}
}
Then, in each property setter of concrete, derived domain classes, you need to invoke onPropertyChanged as follows
to notify listeners:
<?php
// Mapping not shown, either in annotations or xml as usual
class MyEntity extends DomainObject
{
private $data;
// ... other fields as usual
public function setData($data) {

if ($data != $this->data) { // check: is it actually modified?
$this->onPropertyChanged('data', $this->data, $data);
$this->data = $data;
}
}
}
The check whether the new value is different from the old one is not mandatory but recommended. That way you can
avoid unnecessary updates and also have full control over when you consider a property changed.
9.3.8 Integrating with CodeIgniter
This is recipe for using Doctrine 2 in your CodeIgniter framework.
Note: This might not work for all CodeIgniter versions and may require slight adjustments.
9.3. Cookbook 295

Here is how to set it up:

Make a CodeIgniter library that is both a wrapper and a bootstrap for Doctrine 2.
Setting up the file structure
Here are the steps:

• Add a php file to your system/application/libraries folder called Doctrine.php. This is going to be your wrap-
per/bootstrap for the D2 entity manager.
• Put the Doctrine folder (the one that contains Common, DBAL, and ORM) inside that same libraries folder.
• Your system/application/libraries folder now looks like this:
system/applications/libraries -Doctrine -Doctrine.php -index.html
• If you want, open your config/autoload.php file and autoload your Doctrine library.
<?php $autoload[‘libraries’] = array(‘doctrine’);
Creating your Doctrine CodeIgniter library
Now, here is what your Doctrine.php file should look like. Customize it to your needs.
<?php
use Doctrine\Common\ClassLoader,
Doctrine\ORM\Configuration,
Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager,
Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache,
Doctrine\DBAL\Logging\EchoSQLLogger;
class Doctrine {
public $em = null;

{
// load database configuration from CodeIgniter
require_once APPPATH.'config/database.php';
// Set up class loading. You could use different autoloaders, provided by your
˓→ favorite framework,
// if you want to.
require_once APPPATH.'libraries/Doctrine/Common/ClassLoader.php';
$doctrineClassLoader = new ClassLoader('Doctrine', APPPATH.'libraries');

$doctrineClassLoader->register();
$entitiesClassLoader = new ClassLoader('models', rtrim(APPPATH, "/" ));
$entitiesClassLoader->register();
// Set up caches
$config = new Configuration;
$cache = new ArrayCache;
$driverImpl = $config->newDefaultAnnotationDriver(array(APPPATH.'models/Entities
˓→'));

$config->setProxyDir(APPPATH.'/models/proxies');
// Set up logger
$logger = new EchoSQLLogger;
$config->setSQLLogger($logger);
// Database connection information

$connectionOptions = array(
'driver' => 'pdo_mysql',
'user' => $db['default']['username'],
'password' => $db['default']['password'],
'host' => $db['default']['hostname'],
'dbname' => $db['default']['database']
);
// Create EntityManager
$this->em = EntityManager::create($connectionOptions, $config);
}
}
Please note that this is a development configuration; for a production system you’ll want to use a real caching system
like APC, get rid of EchoSqlLogger, and turn off proxy auto-generation.
For more details, consult the Doctrine 2 Configuration documentation.
Now to use it
Whenever you need a reference to the entity manager inside one of your controllers, views, or models you can do this:
<?php
$em = $this->doctrine->em;
That’s all there is to it. Once you get the reference to your EntityManager do your Doctrine 2.0 voodoo as normal.
Note: If you do not choose to autoload the Doctrine library, you will need to put this line before you get a reference to
it:
<?php
$this->load->library('doctrine');
Good luck!
9.3.9 Keeping your Modules independent
New in version 2.2.

One of the goals of using modules is to create discrete units of functionality that do not have many (if any) dependen-
cies, allowing you to use that functionality in other applications without including unnecessary items.
Doctrine 2.2 includes a new utility called the ResolveTargetEntityListener, that functions by intercepting
certain calls inside Doctrine and rewrite targetEntity parameters in your metadata mapping at runtime. It means that
in your bundle you are able to use an interface or abstract class in your mappings and expect correct mapping to a
concrete entity at runtime.
9.3. Cookbook 297

This functionality allows you to define relationships between different entities but not making them hard dependencies.
Background
In the following example, the situation is we have an InvoiceModule which provides invoicing functionality, and a
CustomerModule that contains customer management tools. We want to keep these separated, because they can be
used in other systems without each other, but for our application we want to use them together.
In this case, we have an Invoice entity with a relationship to a non-existent object, an
InvoiceSubjectInterface. The goal is to get the ResolveTargetEntityListener to replace
any mention of the interface with a real object that implements that interface.
Set up
We’re going to use the following basic entities (which are incomplete for brevity) to explain how to set up and use the
RTEL.
A Customer entity
<?php
// src/Acme/AppModule/Entity/Customer.php
namespace Acme\AppModule\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

use Acme\CustomerModule\Entity\Customer as BaseCustomer;
use Acme\InvoiceModule\Model\InvoiceSubjectInterface;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="customer")
*/
class Customer extends BaseCustomer implements InvoiceSubjectInterface
{
// In our example, any methods defined in the InvoiceSubjectInterface
// are already implemented in the BaseCustomer
}
An Invoice entity
<?php
// src/Acme/InvoiceModule/Entity/Invoice.php
namespace Acme\InvoiceModule\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping AS ORM;

use Acme\InvoiceModule\Model\InvoiceSubjectInterface;
/**
* Represents an Invoice.
*
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="invoice")
*/
class Invoice
{
/**

* @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Acme\InvoiceModule\Model\InvoiceSubjectInterface")
* @var InvoiceSubjectInterface
*/
protected $subject;
}
An InvoiceSubjectInterface
<?php
// src/Acme/InvoiceModule/Model/InvoiceSubjectInterface.php
namespace Acme\InvoiceModule\Model;
/**
* An interface that the invoice Subject object should implement.
* In most circumstances, only a single object should implement
* this interface as the ResolveTargetEntityListener can only
* change the target to a single object.
*/
interface InvoiceSubjectInterface
{
// List any additional methods that your InvoiceModule
// will need to access on the subject so that you can
// be sure that you have access to those methods.
/**
* @return string
*/
public function getName();
}
Next, we need to configure the listener. Add this to the area you set up Doctrine. You must set this up in the way
outlined below, otherwise you can not be guaranteed that the targetEntity resolution will occur reliably:
<?php
$evm = new \Doctrine\Common\EventManager;
$rtel = new \Doctrine\ORM\Tools\ResolveTargetEntityListener;
// Adds a target-entity class

$rtel->addResolveTargetEntity('Acme\\InvoiceModule\\Model\\InvoiceSubjectInterface',
˓→'Acme\\CustomerModule\\Entity\\Customer', array());
// Add the ResolveTargetEntityListener

$evm->addEventListener(Doctrine\ORM\Events::loadClassMetadata, $rtel);
$em = \Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager::create($connectionOptions, $config, $evm);
Final Thoughts
With the ResolveTargetEntityListener, we are able to decouple our bundles, keeping them usable by them-
selves, but still being able to define relationships between different objects. By using this method, I’ve found my
bundles end up being easier to maintain independently.
9.3. Cookbook 299

9.3.10 SQL-Table Prefixes
This recipe is intended as an example of implementing a loadClassMetadata listener to provide a Table Prefix option
for your application. The method used below is not a hack, but fully integrates into the Doctrine system, all SQL
generated will include the appropriate table prefix.
In most circumstances it is desirable to separate different applications into individual databases, but in certain cases,
it may be beneficial to have a table prefix for your Entities to separate them from other vendor products in the same
database.
Implementing the listener
The listener in this example has been set up with the DoctrineExtensions namespace. You create this file in your
library/DoctrineExtensions directory, but will need to set up appropriate autoloaders.
<?php
namespace DoctrineExtensions;
use Doctrine\ORM\Event\LoadClassMetadataEventArgs;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping;
class TablePrefix
{
protected $prefix = '';
public function __construct($prefix)

{
$this->prefix = (string) $prefix;
}
public function loadClassMetadata(LoadClassMetadataEventArgs $eventArgs)

{
if ($classMetadata->inheritanceType !== Mapping\InheritanceType::SINGLE_TABLE

˓→ ||
$classMetadata->getName() === $classMetadata->rootEntityName) {
$classMetadata->setTableName($this->prefix . $classMetadata->
˓→getTableName());
foreach ($classMetadata->associationMappings as $fieldName => $mapping) {

if ($mapping['type'] == Mapping\ClassMetadata::MANY_TO_MANY && $mapping[
˓→'isOwningSide']) {
$mappedTableName = $mapping['joinTable']['name'];
$classMetadata->associationMappings[$fieldName]['joinTable']['name']
˓→= $this->prefix . $mappedTableName;
}
}
}

Telling the EntityManager about our listener
A listener of this type must be set up before the EntityManager has been initialised, otherwise an Entity might be
created or cached before the prefix has been set.
Note: If you set this listener up, be aware that you will need to clear your caches and drop then recreate your database
schema.
<?php
// $connectionOptions and $config set earlier
$evm = new \Doctrine\Common\EventManager;
// Table Prefix
$tablePrefix = new \DoctrineExtensions\TablePrefix('prefix_');
$evm->addEventListener(\Doctrine\ORM\Events::loadClassMetadata, $tablePrefix);
$em = \Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager::create($connectionOptions, $config, $evm);
9.3.11 Strategy-Pattern
This recipe will give you a short introduction on how to design similar entities without using expensive (i.e. slow)
inheritance but with not more than * the well-known strategy pattern * event listeners
Scenario / Problem
Given a Content-Management-System, we probably want to add / edit some so-called “blocks” and “panels”. What
are they for?
• A block might be a registration form, some text content, a table with information. A good example might also
be a small calendar.
• A panel is by definition a block that can itself contain blocks. A good example for a panel might be a sidebar
box: You could easily add a small calendar into it.
So, in this scenario, when building your CMS, you will surely add lots of blocks and panels to your pages and you
will find yourself highly uncomfortable because of the following:
• Every existing page needs to know about the panels it contains - therefore, you’ll have an association to your
panels. But if you’ve got several types of panels - what do you do? Add an association to every panel-type?
This wouldn’t be flexible. You might be tempted to add an AbstractPanelEntity and an AbstractBlockEntity that
use class inheritance. Your page could then only confer to the AbstractPanelType and Doctrine 2 would do the
rest for you, i.e. load the right entities. But - you’ll for sure have lots of panels and blocks, and even worse,
you’d have to edit the discriminator map manually every time you or another developer implements a new block
/ entity. This would tear down any effort of modular programming.
Therefore, we need something that’s far more flexible.
Solution
The solution itself is pretty easy. We will have one base class that will be loaded via the page and that has specific
behaviour - a Block class might render the front-end and even the backend, for example. Now, every block that you’ll
9.3. Cookbook 301

write might look different or need different data - therefore, we’ll offer an API to these methods but internally, we use
a strategy that exactly knows what to do.
First of all, we need to make sure that we have an interface that contains every needed action. Such actions would
be rendering the front-end or the backend, solving dependencies (blocks that are supposed to be placed in the sidebar
could refuse to be placed in the middle of your page, for example).
Such an interface could look like this:
<?php
/**
* This interface defines the basic actions that a block / panel needs to support.
*
* Every blockstrategy is *only* responsible for rendering a block and declaring some
˓→basic
* support, but *not* for updating its configuration etc. For this purpose, use
˓→controllers
* and models.
*/
interface BlockStrategyInterface {
/**
* This could configure your entity
*/
public function setConfig(Config\EntityConfig $config);
/**
* Returns the config this strategy is configured with.
* @return Core\Model\Config\EntityConfig
*/
public function getConfig();
/**
* Set the view object.
* @param \Zend_View_Interface $view
* @return \Zend_View_Helper_Interface
*/
public function setView(\Zend_View_Interface $view);
/**
* @return \Zend_View_Interface
*/
public function getView();
/**
* Renders this strategy. This method will be called when the user
* displays the site.
*
* @return string
*/
public function renderFrontend();
/**
* Renders the backend of this block. This method will be called when
* a user tries to reconfigure this block instance.
*
* Most of the time, this method will return / output a simple form which in turn
* calls some controllers.
*
* @return string

*/
public function renderBackend();
/**
* Returns all possible types of panels this block can be stacked onto
*
* @return array
*/
public function getRequiredPanelTypes();
/**
* Determines whether a Block is able to use a given type or not
* @param string $typeName The typename
* @return boolean
*/
public function canUsePanelType($typeName);
public function setBlockEntity(AbstractBlock $block);
public function getBlockEntity();

}
As you can see, we have a method “setBlockEntity” which ties a potential strategy to an object of type AbstractBlock.
This type will simply define the basic behaviour of our blocks and could potentially look something like this:
<?php
/**
* This is the base class for both Panels and Blocks.
* It shouldn't be extended by your own blocks - simply write a strategy!
*/
abstract class AbstractBlock {
/**
* The id of the block item instance
* This is a doctrine field, so you need to setup generation for it
* @var integer
*/
private $id;
// Add code for relation to the parent panel, configuration objects, ....
/**
* This var contains the classname of the strategy
* that is used for this blockitem. (This string (!) value will be persisted by
˓→Doctrine 2)
*
* This is a doctrine field, so make sure that you use an @column annotation or
˓→setup your
* xml files correctly

* @var string
*/
protected $strategyClassName;
/**
* This var contains an instance of $this->blockStrategy. Will not be persisted
˓→by Doctrine 2.
*
* @var BlockStrategyInterface
*/
9.3. Cookbook 303

protected $strategyInstance;
/**
* Returns the strategy that is used for this blockitem.
*
* The strategy itself defines how this block can be rendered etc.
*
* @return string
*/
public function getStrategyClassName() {
return $this->strategyClassName;
}
/**
* Returns the instantiated strategy
*
* @return BlockStrategyInterface
*/
public function getStrategyInstance() {
return $this->strategyInstance;
}
/**
* Sets the strategy this block / panel should work as. Make sure that you've used
* this method before persisting the block!
*
* @param BlockStrategyInterface $strategy
*/
public function setStrategy(BlockStrategyInterface $strategy) {
$this->strategyInstance = $strategy;
$this->strategyClassName = get_class($strategy);
$strategy->setBlockEntity($this);
}
Now, the important point is that $strategyClassName is a Doctrine 2 field, i.e. Doctrine will persist this value. This is
only the class name of your strategy and not an instance!
Finishing your strategy pattern, we hook into the Doctrine postLoad event and check whether a block has been loaded.
If so, you will initialize it - i.e. get the strategies classname, create an instance of it and set it via setStrategyBlock().
This might look like this:
<?php
use Doctrine\ORM,
Doctrine\Common;
/**
* The BlockStrategyEventListener will initialize a strategy after the
* block itself was loaded.
*/
class BlockStrategyEventListener implements Common\EventSubscriber {
protected $view;
public function __construct(\Zend_View_Interface $view) {

$this->view = $view;
}

public function getSubscribedEvents() {

return array(ORM\Events::postLoad);
}
public function postLoad(ORM\Event\LifecycleEventArgs $args) {

$blockItem = $args->getEntity();
// Both blocks and panels are instances of Block\AbstractBlock

if ($blockItem instanceof Block\AbstractBlock) {
$strategy = $blockItem->getStrategyClassName();
$strategyInstance = new $strategy();
if (null !== $blockItem->getConfig()) {
$strategyInstance->setConfig($blockItem->getConfig());
}
$strategyInstance->setView($this->view);
$blockItem->setStrategy($strategyInstance);
}
}
}
In this example, even some variables are set - like a view object or a specific configuration object.
9.3.12 Validation of Entities

Doctrine 2 does not ship with any internal validators, the reason being that we think all the frameworks out there
already ship with quite decent ones that can be integrated into your Domain easily. What we offer are hooks to execute
any kind of validation.
Note: You don’t need to validate your entities in the lifecycle events. Its only one of many options. Of course you
can also perform validations in value setters or any other method of your entities that are used in your code.
Entities can register lifecycle event methods with Doctrine that are called on different occasions. For validation we
would need to hook into the events called before persisting and updating. Even though we don’t support validation out
of the box, the implementation is even simpler than in Doctrine 1 and you will get the additional benefit of being able
to re-use your validation in any other part of your domain.
Say we have an Order with several OrderLine instances. We never want to allow any customer to order for a
larger sum than he is allowed to:
<?php
class Order
{
public function assertCustomerAllowedBuying()
{
$orderLimit = $this->customer->getOrderLimit();
$amount = 0;
foreach ($this->orderLines as $line) {
$amount += $line->getAmount();
}
if ($amount > $orderLimit) {

throw new CustomerOrderLimitExceededException();
9.3. Cookbook 305

}
}
}
Now this is some pretty important piece of business logic in your code, enforcing it at any time is important so that
customers with a unknown reputation don’t owe your business too much money.
We can enforce this constraint in any of the metadata drivers. First Annotations:
<?php
/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
*/
class Order
{
/**
* @ORM\PrePersist @ORM\PreUpdate
*/
public function assertCustomerAllowedBuying() {}
}
In XML Mappings:
<doctrine-mapping>
<entity name="Order">
<lifecycle-callback type="prePersist" method="assertCustomerallowedBuying
˓→" />
<lifecycle-callback type="preUpdate" method="assertCustomerallowedBuying"

˓→/>
</entity>
</doctrine-mapping>
Now validation is performed whenever you call EntityManager#persist($order) or when you call
EntityManager#flush() and an order is about to be updated. Any Exception that happens in the lifecycle
callbacks will be caught by the EntityManager and the current transaction is rolled back.
Of course you can do any type of primitive checks, not null, email-validation, string size, integer and date ranges in
your validation callbacks.
<?php
class Order
{
/**
* @ORM\PrePersist @ORM\PreUpdate
*/
public function validate()
{
if (!($this->plannedShipDate instanceof DateTime)) {
throw new ValidateException();

if ($this->plannedShipDate->format('U') < time()) {

throw new ValidateException();
}
if ($this->customer == null) {
throw new OrderRequiresCustomerException();
}
}
}
What is nice about lifecycle events is, you can also re-use the methods at other places in your domain, for example in
combination with your form library. Additionally there is no limitation in the number of methods you register on one
particular event, i.e. you can register multiple methods for validation in “PrePersist” or “PreUpdate” or mix and share
them in any combinations between those two events.
There is no limit to what you can and can’t validate in “PrePersist” and “PreUpdate” as long as you don’t create new
entity instances. This was already discussed in the previous blog post on the Versionable extension, which requires
another type of event called “onFlush”.
Further readings: Lifecycle Events
9.3.13 Working with DateTime Instances
There are many nitty gritty details when working with PHPs DateTime instances. You have know their inner work-
ings pretty well not to make mistakes with date handling. This cookbook entry holds several interesting pieces of
information on how to work with PHP DateTime instances in Doctrine 2.
DateTime changes are detected by Reference
When calling EntityManager#flush() Doctrine computes the changesets of all the currently managed enti-
ties and saves the differences to the database. In case of object properties (@Column(type=”datetime”) or @Col-
umn(type=”object”)) these comparisons are always made BY REFERENCE. That means the following change will
NOT be saved into the database:
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class Article
{
private $updated;
public function setUpdated()

{
// will NOT be saved in the database
$this->updated->modify("now");
}
}
The way to go would be:
9.3. Cookbook 307

<?php
class Article
{
public function setUpdated()
{
// WILL be saved in the database
$this->updated = new \DateTime("now");
}
}
Default Timezone Gotcha
By default Doctrine assumes that you are working with a default timezone. Each DateTime instance that is created by
Doctrine will be assigned the timezone that is currently the default, either through the date.timezone ini setting
or by calling date_default_timezone_set().
This is very important to handle correctly if your application runs on different servers or is moved from one to another
server (with different timezone settings). You have to make sure that the timezone is the correct one on all this systems.
Handling different Timezones with the DateTime Type
If you first come across the requirement to save different timezones you may be still optimistic about how to manage
this mess, however let me crush your expectations fast. There is not a single database out there (supported by Doctrine
2) that supports timezones correctly. Correctly here means that you can cover all the use-cases that can come up with
timezones. If you don’t believe me you should read up on Storing DateTime in Databases.
The problem is simple. Not a single database vendor saves the timezone, only the differences to UTC. However with
frequent daylight saving and political timezone changes you can have a UTC offset that moves in different offset
directions depending on the real location.
The solution for this dilemma is simple. Don’t use timezones with DateTime and Doctrine 2. However there is a
workaround that even allows correct date-time handling with timezones:
1. Always convert any DateTime instance to UTC.
2. Only set Timezones for displaying purposes
3. Save the Timezone in the Entity for persistence.
Say we have an application for an international postal company and employees insert events regarding postal-package
around the world, in their current timezones. To determine the exact time an event occurred means to save both the
UTC time at the time of the booking and the timezone the event happened in.
<?php
namespace DoctrineExtensions\DBAL\Types;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\ConversionException;
use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\DateTimeType;
class UTCDateTimeType extends DateTimeType

{
static private $utc;

{

if ($value instanceof \DateTime) {

$value->setTimezone(self::getUtc());
}
return parent::convertToDatabaseValue($value, $platform);

}

{
if (null === $value || $value instanceof \DateTime) {
return $value;
}
$converted = \DateTime::createFromFormat(
$platform->getDateTimeFormatString(),
$value,
self::$utc ? self::$utc : self::$utc = new \DateTimeZone('UTC')
);
if (! $converted) {
throw ConversionException::conversionFailedFormat(
$value,
$this->getName(),
$platform->getDateTimeFormatString()
);
}
return $converted;
}
}
This database type makes sure that every DateTime instance is always saved in UTC, relative to the current timezone
that the passed DateTime instance has.
To actually use this new type instead of the default datetime type, you need to run following code before bootstrap-
ping the ORM:
<?php
use DoctrineExtensions\DBAL\Types\UTCDateTimeType;
Type::overrideType('datetime', UTCDateTimeType::class);
Type::overrideType('datetimetz', UTCDateTimeType::class);
To be able to transform these values back into their real timezone you have to save the timezone in a separate field of
the entity requiring timezoned datetimes:
<?php
namespace Shipping;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Event
9.3. Cookbook 309

{
private $created;
private $timezone;
/**
* @var bool
*/
private $localized = false;
public function __construct(\DateTime $createDate)

{
$this->localized = true;
$this->created = $createDate;
$this->timezone = $createDate->getTimeZone()->getName();
}
public function getCreated()

{
if (!$this->localized) {
$this->created->setTimeZone(new \DateTimeZone($this->timezone));
}
return $this->created;
}
}
This snippet makes use of the previously discussed “changeset by reference only” property of objects. That means a
new DateTime will only be used during updating if the reference changes between retrieval and flush operation. This
means we can easily go and modify the instance by setting the previous local timezone.
9.3.14 Mysql Enums
The type system of Doctrine 2 consists of flyweights, which means there is only one instance of any given type.
Additionally types do not contain state. Both assumptions make it rather complicated to work with the Enum Type of
MySQL that is used quite a lot by developers.
When using Enums with a non-tweaked Doctrine 2 application you will get errors from the Schema-Tool commands
due to the unknown database type “enum”. By default Doctrine does not map the MySQL enum type to a Doctrine
type. This is because Enums contain state (their allowed values) and Doctrine types don’t.
This cookbook entry shows two possible solutions to work with MySQL enums. But first a word of warning. The
MySQL Enum type has considerable downsides:
• Adding new values requires to rebuild the whole table, which can take hours depending on the size.
• Enums are ordered in the way the values are specified, not in their “natural” order.
• Enums validation mechanism for allowed values is not necessarily good, specifying invalid values leads to
an empty enum for the default MySQL error settings. You can easily replicate the “allow only some values”
requirement in your Doctrine entities.
Solution 1: Mapping to Varchars
You can map ENUMs to varchars. You can register MySQL ENUMs to map to Doctrine varchars. This way Doctrine
always resolves ENUMs to Doctrine varchars. It will even detect this match correctly when using SchemaTool update

commands.
<?php
$conn = $em->getConnection();
$conn->getDatabasePlatform()->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('enum', 'string');
In this case you have to ensure that each varchar field that is an enum in the database only gets passed the allowed
values. You can easily enforce this in your entities:
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class Article
{
const STATUS_VISIBLE = 'visible';
const STATUS_INVISIBLE = 'invisible';
private $status;
public function setStatus($status)

{
if (!in_array($status, array(self::STATUS_VISIBLE, self::STATUS_INVISIBLE))) {
throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Invalid status");
}
$this->status = $status;
}
}
If you want to actively create enums through the Doctrine Schema-Tool by using the columnDefinition attribute.
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class Article
{
/** @ORM\Column(type="string", columnDefinition="ENUM('visible', 'invisible')") */
private $status;
}
In this case however Schema-Tool update will have a hard time not to request changes for this column on each call.
Solution 2: Defining a Type
You can make a stateless ENUM type by creating a type class for each unique set of ENUM values. For example for
the previous enum type:
<?php
namespace MyProject\DBAL;
9.3. Cookbook 311

class EnumVisibilityType extends Type

{
const ENUM_VISIBILITY = 'enumvisibility';
const STATUS_VISIBLE = 'visible';
const STATUS_INVISIBLE = 'invisible';

˓→ $platform)
{
return "ENUM('visible', 'invisible')";
}

{
return $value;
}

{
if (!in_array($value, array(self::STATUS_VISIBLE, self::STATUS_INVISIBLE))) {
throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Invalid status");
}
return $value;
}

{
return self::ENUM_VISIBILITY;
}
public function requiresSQLCommentHint(AbstractPlatform $platform)

{
return true;
}
}
You can register this type with Type::addType('enumvisibility',

'MyProject\DBAL\EnumVisibilityType');. Then in your entity you can just use this type:
<?php
/** @ORM\Entity */
class Article
{
/** @ORM\Column(type="enumvisibility") */
private $status;
}
You can generalize this approach easily to create a base class for enums:
<?php

abstract class EnumType extends Type

{
protected $name;
protected $values = array();

˓→ $platform)
{
$values = array_map(function($val) { return "'".$val."'"; }, $this->values);
return "ENUM(".implode(", ", $values).")";

}

{
return $value;
}

{
if (!in_array($value, $this->values)) {
throw new \InvalidArgumentException("Invalid '".$this->name."' value.");
}
return $value;
}

{
return $this->name;
}
public function requiresSQLCommentHint(AbstractPlatform $platform)

{
return true;
}
}
With this base class you can define an enum as easily as:
<?php
class EnumVisibilityType extends EnumType

{
protected $name = 'enumvisibility';
protected $values = array('visible', 'invisible');
}
9.3.15 Advanced field value conversion using custom mapping types
Section author: Jan Sorgalla <jsorgalla@googlemail.com>

When creating entities, you sometimes have the need to transform field values before they are saved to the database.
In Doctrine you can use Custom Mapping Types to solve this (see: reference-basic-mapping-custom-mapping-types).
There are several ways to achieve this: converting the value inside the Type class, converting the value on the database-
level or a combination of both.
9.3. Cookbook 313

This article describes the third way by implementing the MySQL specific column type Point.
The Point type is part of the Spatial extension of MySQL and enables you to store a single location in a coordinate
space by using x and y coordinates. You can use the Point type to store a longitude/latitude pair to represent a
geographic location.
The entity
We create a simple entity with a field $point which holds a value object Point representing the latitude and
longitude of the position.
The entity class:
<?php
namespace Geo\Entity;
/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class Location
{
/**
* @ORM\Column(type="point")
*
* @var \Geo\ValueObject\Point
*/
private $point;
/**
*
* @var string
*/
private $address;
/**
* @param \Geo\ValueObject\Point $point
*/
public function setPoint(\Geo\ValueObject\Point $point)
{
$this->point = $point;
}
/**
* @return \Geo\ValueObject\Point
*/
public function getPoint()
{
return $this->point;
}
/**
* @param string $address
*/
public function setAddress($address)

{
$this->address = $address;
}
/**
* @return string
*/
public function getAddress()
{
return $this->address;
}
}
We use the custom type point in the @Column docblock annotation of the $point field. We will create this custom
mapping type in the next chapter.
The point class:
<?php
namespace Geo\ValueObject;
class Point
{
/**
* @param float $latitude
* @param float $longitude
*/
public function __construct($latitude, $longitude)
{
$this->latitude = $latitude;
$this->longitude = $longitude;
}
/**
* @return float
*/
public function getLatitude()
{
return $this->latitude;
}
/**
* @return float
*/
public function getLongitude()
{
return $this->longitude;
}
}
The mapping type
Now we’re going to create the point type and implement all required methods.
9.3. Cookbook 315

<?php
namespace Geo\Types;
use Geo\ValueObject\Point;
class PointType extends Type

{
const POINT = 'point';

{
return self::POINT;
}

˓→ $platform)
{
return 'POINT';
}

{
list($longitude, $latitude) = sscanf($value, 'POINT(%f %f)');
return new Point($latitude, $longitude);

}

{
if ($value instanceof Point) {
$value = sprintf('POINT(%F %F)', $value->getLongitude(), $value->
˓→getLatitude());
return $value;
}
public function canRequireSQLConversion()

{
return true;
}
public function convertToPHPValueSQL($sqlExpr, AbstractPlatform $platform)

{
return sprintf('AsText(%s)', $sqlExpr);
}
public function convertToDatabaseValueSQL($sqlExpr, AbstractPlatform $platform)

{
return sprintf('PointFromText(%s)', $sqlExpr);
}
}
We do a 2-step conversion here. In the first step, we convert the Point object into a string representation before saving

to the database (in the convertToDatabaseValue method) and back into an object after fetching the value from
the database (in the convertToPHPValue method).
The format of the string representation format is called Well-known text (WKT). The advantage of this format is, that
it is both human readable and parsable by MySQL.
Internally, MySQL stores geometry values in a binary format that is not identical to the WKT format. So, we need to
let MySQL transform the WKT representation into its internal format.
This is where the convertToPHPValueSQL and convertToDatabaseValueSQL methods come into play.
This methods wrap a sql expression (the WKT representation of the Point) into MySQL functions PointFromText and
AsText which convert WKT strings to and from the internal format of MySQL.
Note: When using DQL queries, the convertToPHPValueSQL and convertToDatabaseValueSQL meth-
ods only apply to identification variables and path expressions in SELECT clauses. Expressions in WHERE clauses
are not wrapped!
If you want to use Point values in WHERE clauses, you have to implement a user defined function for
PointFromText.
Example usage
<?php
// Bootstrapping stuff...
// $em = \Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager::create($connectionOptions, $config);
// Setup custom mapping type

Type::addType('point', 'Geo\Types\PointType');
$em->getConnection()->getDatabasePlatform()->registerDoctrineTypeMapping('point',
˓→'point');
// Store a Location object

use Geo\Entity\Location;
use Geo\ValueObject\Point;
$location = new Location();
$location->setAddress('1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA');

$location->setPoint(new Point(37.4220761, -122.0845187));
$em->persist($location);
$em->flush();
$em->clear();
// Fetch the Location object

$query = $em->createQuery("SELECT l FROM Geo\Entity\Location WHERE l.address = '1600
˓→Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA'");
$location = $query->getSingleResult();
/* @var Geo\ValueObject\Point */
$point = $location->getPoint();
9.3. Cookbook 317

9.3.16 Entities in the Session
There are several use-cases to save entities in the session, for example:
1. User object
2. Multi-step forms
To achieve this with Doctrine you have to pay attention to some details to get this working.
Merging entity into an EntityManager
In Doctrine, an entity objects has to be “managed” by an EntityManager to be updated. Entities saved into the session
are not managed in the next request anymore. This means that you have to register these entities with an EntityManager
again if you want to change them or use them as part of references between other entities.
It is a good idea to avoid storing entities in serialized formats such as $_SESSION: instead, store the entity identifiers
or raw data.
For a representative User object the code to get turn an instance from the session into a managed Doctrine object looks
like this:
<?php
require_once 'bootstrap.php';
$em = GetEntityManager(); // creates an EntityManager
session_start();
if (isset($_SESSION['user'])) {
$user = $em->find(User::class, $_SESSION['user']);
if (! $user instanceof User) {

// user not found in the database
$_SESSION['user'] = null;
}
}
Serializing entities into the session
Serializing entities in the session means serializing also all associated entities and collections. While this might look
like a quick solution in simple applications, you will encounter problems due to the fact that the data in the session is
stale.
In order to prevent working with stale data, try saving only minimal information about your entities in your session,
without storing entire entity objects. Should you need the full information of an object, so it is suggested to re-query
the database, which is usually the most authoritative source of information in typical PHP applications.

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What are the main chapters covered in the documentation?

What are the main chapters covered in the documentation?

How can users get help if the documentation does not answer their questions?

How can users get help if the documentation does not answer their questions?

Doctrine 2 ORM Documentation

Doctrine Project Team

Mar 04, 2018

3 Mapping Objects onto a Database 7

4 Working with Objects 9

9 Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation! 19

4 Chapter 1. Getting Help

• Tutorial: Getting Started with Doctrine

6 Chapter 2. Getting Started

Mapping Objects onto a Database

• Mapping: Objects | Associations | Inheritance

8 Chapter 3. Mapping Objects onto a Database

Working with Objects

• Basic Reference: Entities | Associations | Events

10 Chapter 4. Working with Objects

12 Chapter 5. Advanced Topics

• Patterns: Aggregate Fields | Decorator Pattern | Strategy Pattern

Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation!

9.1.1 Getting Started with Doctrine

persistence in a relational database management system.

What are Entities?

An Example Model: Bug Tracker

Install Doctrine using the Composer Dependency Management tool, by calling:

20 Chapter 9. Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation!

Obtaining the EntityManager

// Create a simple "default" Doctrine ORM configuration for Annotations

// or if you prefer XML

// database configuration parameters

// obtaining the entity manager

Generating the Database Schema

cli-config.php file must exist in the project root directory:

$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:drop --force

Or you can use the update functionality:

$ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:update --force

Starting with the Product Entity

public function getId()

public function getName()

22 Chapter 9. Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation!

public function setName($name)

use Doctrine\ORM\Annotation as ORM;

/** @ORM\Column(type="string") **/

<entity name="Product" table="products">

<field name="name" type="string" />

$product = new Product();

echo "Created Product with ID " . $product->getId() . "\n";

foreach ($products as $product) {

24 Chapter 9. Welcome to Doctrine 2 ORM’s documentation!

if ($product === null) {

echo sprintf("-%s\n", $product->getName());

$product = $entityManager->find('Product', $id);

if ($product === null) {

Adding Bug and User Entities

use Doctrine\ORM\Annotation as ORM;

public function getId()

public function getDescription()

/ @ORM\Column(type="string") /