I created an data object over a legacy database table in which null values represnted as -1.
Is there a way do let hibernate know, in that table only, that when loading an object -1 is null and vice-versa when persist?

Any idea is welcome
Zohar

i would look into a custom usertype to do this.

custom usertype is for a specific object, I was aiming for something general.

well, jaimes tip was perfectly all right ...

With a custom UserTypes you can do this ... i think you won't be able to find a more "general" solution which is as easy as writing some UserTypes, especially because you can find some examples of such UserTypes in the forum.

In Hibernate (as far as i know hibernate) the (User)Types are responsible for reading a value from the resultset (or setting it) and returning the value which will be set into your bean ... so it's the best place to change values, as you need it.

Sure, you have to write a UserType for each type (int, String, long etc.) but that's not really a problem ... they're nearly all the same ...

gtx
curio

btw ... i've forgot that ...
if you have the possibility to avoid that change, do it! Try to migrate data or something like that, if it's possible! Otherwise you will always have problems with relations, "-1" being a real value and not "null" ... and so on.

I'm having those problems and it has required writing a lot of UserTypes and own persisters to fix some errors ...

Therefor, the best hint i can give you is to try to migrate the data if it's possible ... (in my case it's not possible :( )