is it better to use a fetch when possible when loading collections and proxies as oppose to hibernate.initialize() , when I do a fetch it joins the tables in one query as opposed to the initialize which creates one query per collection/proxy I load.

Just wondering what best practices we should be using

Thanks

This question can only be answered by profiling your application. So many factors can influence which performs the best, eg, network latency, indexes, db caching, hibernate caching, data volumes etc. Try them both and see which is the best.