HQL is extremely powerful but some developers prefer to build queries dynamically, using an object-oriented API, rather than building query strings. Hibernate provides an intuitive Criteria query API for these cases:

Criteria crit = session.createCriteria(Cat.class);
crit.add( Expression.eq( "color", eg.Color.BLACK ) );
crit.setMaxResults(10);
List cats = crit.list();

The Criteria and the associated Example API are discussed in more detail in Chapter 15, Criteria Queries .