Hibernate mapping between Postgres array of varchar and a Java/Kotlin collection of enum

Basically everything is in the title.

I have a column in my DB which is a varchar[].

I really would like to map it to a Java/Kotlin enum. We've already got this working to fetch it as a list of Strings (through com.vladmihalcea:hibernate-types and StringArrayType), but not with a mapping to an enum. Do you know if this is possible?

Since we know how to map a varchar to an enum, and a varchar[] to a collection of String, I would be tempted to think that this should possible, but I didn't succeed yet.

Here would be a simple sample of my current configuration:

CREATE TABLE test(my_values varchar[]) ;
INSERT INTO test(my_values) values ('{VAL1, VAL2}')

@Entity
@Table(name = "test")
data class DbTest(
        @Column(name = "my_values")
        val myValues: List<Values>
)

enum class Values {
       VAL1, VAL2
}

I tried this: https://vladmihalcea.com/map-postgresql-enum-array-jpa-entity-property-hibernate/ which looks pretty good but you have to define the enum in the DB and we don't want that.

Thanks!

Previous answer does not work for me, but this working:

    TypeDef(
      name = "enums-array",
      typeClass = ListArrayType::class,
      parameters = [Parameter(name = EnumArrayType.SQL_ARRAY_TYPE, value = "varchar")]
    )

I'm posting my solution, I didn't succeed to get a List<Values>, although I got an Array<Values> which was fine with me.

@Entity
@Table(name = "test")
@TypeDef(
        name = "values-array",
        typeClass = EnumArrayType::class,
        defaultForType = Array<Values>::class,
        parameters = [
          Parameter(
                  name = EnumArrayType.SQL_ARRAY_TYPE,
                  value = "varchar"
          )
        ]
)
data class DbTest(
        @Type(type = "values-array")
        @Column(name = "my_values", columnDefinition = "varchar[]")
        val myValues: Array<Values>
)

enum class Values {
       VAL1, VAL2
}

This is working like a charm and I can map my array to a list and vice versa quite easily, which is ok.

Hoping this will help someone someday