JPA - How to save entity with value from non PK column in DB

let's say i have a simple entity call Account and User

Account

@Id
@Column(name="ACCOUNT_ID")
private Long accountId;
@Column(name="ACCOUNT_NO")
private String accountNo;

User

@Id
@Column(name="USER_ID")
private Long userId;
@ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinColumn(name="ACCOUNT_NO")
private Account account;

and I have a save action

Account acc = accountRepo.findByAccountId(1);
acc.setAccountNo("TestAccNo");
User user = new User();
user.setAccount(acc);
userRepo.save(user);

User entity can be save successfully with the following db result:

User
--------------------------
ID    |    ACCOUNT_NO
--------------------------
1     |       1

I understand that the mapping should always using the PK, which is ACCOUNT_ID in User entity, but for some reason, the User table only have ACCOUNT_NO, so I want the ACCOUNT_NO to store "TestAccNo" instead of "1" (Account'S PK).

I modified User entity to following and it's able to capture the ACCOUNT_NO, I keep the @ManyToOne mapping and create another column mapping.

@ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinColumn(name="ACCOUNT_NO", insertable = false, updatable = false)
private Account account;
@Column(name="ACCOUNT_NO")
private String accountNo;
---------------------------------------
user.setAccountNo(acc.getAccountNo());
userRepo.save(user);

This seem like not a proper way to do that, is anyone have better solution ?

Thank you.

You can use referencedColumnName in @JoinColumn to specify which column's value you want to store in the joined column

@ManyToOne(fetch=FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinColumn(name="ACCOUNT_NO", referencedColumnName="ACCOUNT_NO")
private Account account;