Hello,

I am trying to map a lookup table (a table with three columns, each a FK to other tables) to a Test class using Hibernate. The columns are:

TestTypeID
TestCategoryID
QuestionID

There can be multiple QuestionID entries for identical combinations of TestTypeID and TestCategoryID. There will be a unique combination of all three in the record at one time.

I want to be able to instantiate a Test class that has attributes of TestTypeID and TestCategoryID; it also will have a Collection of Questions created from the QuestionID.

Hibernate requires me to specifiy a PK in each mapped class. This means I need to use all three lookup-table columns as the composite-key in the Test class. However, when I create the Set in the Test map, I am required to use the composite key to link to the QuestionID field in the Question table. I cannot do this, as the relationship between the Question and Lookup table is via QuestionID.

So am at an impasse. I am too new to Hibernate (and not clever enough) to think of a solution. Has anyone needed to handle lookup tables in a similar way? If so, what kind of mapping strategy did you use?

Hope this made sense. I can post more specifics if necessary.

--Bill

You should probably take a look at "Mapping Ternary Associations" at http://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/html/collections.html#collections-s1-11a