# belongsTo

## Purpose

Defines a "belongs to" relationship where the class specified by `belongsTo` assumes ownership of the relationship. This has the effect of controlling how deletes cascade. In other words the owning side will cascade deletes when `belongsTo` is specified on the inverse side.

## Examples

    class Book {
       String title
       static belongsTo = [author:Author]
    }

In this example the `Book` class specifies that it belongs to the `Author` class, hence when an `Author` instance is deleted so are all the `Book` instances associated with the `Author`

## Description

Note that `belongsTo` servers to abstract the nature of the cascading behaviour in Hibernate. However, if you prefer to have full control of cascading deletes you can take advantage of the ORM DSL, which allows fine grained control of cascading deletes.