Is there a way to tell hibernate not to save a column if the value in the hibernate object is a null and the current value in the column is not null?


Also, along the same lines if you have a complex object and one of the attributes which is a class that represents a table is a null I would assume the table entry creation (insert) would not happen?

Thanks,
-Tony

1) No, but you can simulate it by either putting the logic in your set method ("if (param == null && field != null) return;") or using a stored proc to do your save (see ref docs section 16.4).

2) Yes, associations with null values do not cause inserts. The only exception that I can think of is value collections (collections containing <element> rather than associations): if there is a null element in the collection, and if the element isn't not-null="true", then a row will be inserted into the collection's table, and it will contain null.