Any (hibernate-core JavaDocs)

```
@Target({METHOD,FIELD})
@Retention(RUNTIME)
public @interface Any
```
Defines a ToOne-style association pointing to one of several entity types depending on a local discriminator, as opposed to discriminated inheritance where the discriminator is kept as part of the entity hierarchy. For example, if you consider an Order entity containing Payment information where Payment might be of type CashPayment or CreditCardPayment the @Any approach would be to keep that discriminator and matching value on the Order itself. Thought of another way, the "foreign-key" really is made up of the value and discriminator (there is no physical foreign key here as databases do not support this):
```
    @Entity
    class Order {
        ...
        @Any( metaColumn = @Column( name="payment_type" ) )
        @AnyMetDef(
                idType = "long"
                metaValues = {
                        @MetaValue( value="C", targetEntity=CashPayment.class ),
                        @MetaValue( value="CC", targetEntity=CreditCardPayment.class ),
                }
        )
        pubic Payment getPayment() { ... }
    }
 }
 
```
See Also:

AnyMetaDef

Required Element Summary

Required Elements
Modifier and Type Required Element Description

Column metaColumn
Identifies the discriminator column.

Optional Element Summary

Optional Elements
Modifier and Type	Optional Element	Description
`FetchType`	`fetch`	Defines whether the value of the field or property should be lazily loaded or must be eagerly fetched.
`java.lang.String`	`metaDef`	Metadata definition used.
`boolean`	`optional`	Whether the association is optional.

- Element Detail
  - metaColumn
```
Column metaColumn
```
    Identifies the discriminator column. This column will hold the value that identifies the targeted entity.
- - metaDef
```
java.lang.String metaDef
```
    Metadata definition used. If defined, should point to a @AnyMetaDef name If not defined, the local (ie in the same field or property) @AnyMetaDef is used
    
    Default:
    
    ""
- - fetch
```
FetchType fetch
```
    Defines whether the value of the field or property should be lazily loaded or must be eagerly fetched. The EAGER strategy is a requirement on the persistence provider runtime that the value must be eagerly fetched. The LAZY strategy is applied when bytecode enhancement is used. If not specified, defaults to EAGER.
    
    Default:
    
    javax.persistence.FetchType.EAGER
- - optional
```
boolean optional
```
    Whether the association is optional. If set to false then a non-null relationship must always exist.
    
    Default:
    
    true