Hibernate version: 2.1.6

I have a query returning an array of 2 objects while I would expect it to return a 3-objects array. The query is:

select category, categoryLevel1, categoryStore1
from Catalog as catalog, CategoryStore as categoryStore1, CategoryStore as categoryStore2
inner join catalog.catalogCategories catalogCategory
inner join catalogCategory.catalogCategoryPK.category category
left outer join fetch category.categories categoryLevel1
left outer join fetch categoryLevel1.categories categoryLevel2
where catalog.catalogId = :catalogId
and categoryStore1.categoryStorePK.category.categoryId=categoryLevel1.categoryId
and categoryStore1.categoryStorePK.storeId=:storeId
and categoryStore2.categoryStorePK.category.categoryId=categoryLevel2.categoryId
and categoryStore2.categoryStorePK.storeId=:storeId
order by category.sequence

(I don't report the mapping files because they're overcomplicated and I did not write them). Is there anything obviously wrong in it?

I forgot to mention that the object that is not extracted is the one with alias "categoryLevel1".

According to your query (left join fetch), categoryLevel1 is a collection and not an entity... Therefore it cannot be part of the select clause asis.

If you need the elements, think about using the elements() keyword - if it makes sense...

Ah! Thank you, this is surely the problem: I forgot that one has to use elements() for this to happen.