The database I am connecting to, stores their dates as Integers in the format: 20060523 (yyyyMMdd). I would like to be able to store these fields as java.util.Date objects within my persistence objects. In this application I am only using hibernate to read from the database (never to write to).

The conversion is easy to code with:
new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd").parse(integerDate.toString())

I tried doing the conversion within the getter/setter, but I notice these methods don't get used when populating the object from the database.

Anyone know how I can do this??... or another other idea which would result in getting these dates within the my persistence object as a Date object??

1. The getter/setter should be used IMHO, maybe you should look for "lazy"
definitions in your mapping and play with "lazy=false" ?

2. Another simple way is using a "UserType". Just tage a look at the
documentation for examples. That way your conversion code goes into the
UserType-Definition and your java property becomes a Date.

Hmm i would be interested to see how that conversion was implemented in the getter/setters... I would think it should work fine there. Could you post that snippet of code?

Here is what I tried:

/** persistent field */
private Date ulexpiry; //term expiry date

/**
* @hibernate.property
* column="ULEXPIRY"
* length="10"
* not-null="true"
*
*/
public Date getUlexpiry() {
return this.ulexpiry;
}

public void setUlexpiry(Integer ulexpiry) {
this.ulexpiry = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd").parse(ulexpiry.toString());
}

When I query the database however to populat this persistence object, it doesn't care about the setter, it just complains about the mismatch of trying to set the db integer to a java Date.

(FYI, I am new to hibernate... so if there is something obvious I'm missing, it may not be obvious to me)

Talk about the perfect find:

Here a link which not only tells me how to do this with a User Type, but their example is exactly what I'm doing to the tee.

http://www.i-proving.ca/space/Technolog ... +Hibernate

heh nice find....I was going to say that it might be thrownig that exception because in that setter method you are setting an integer to Date, it may compile fine, but i'm guessing the database doesn't like it.

Very funny coincidence.

I know why that example fit so perfectly for me. I recognized the company in the package name of the example. I look at the author and I recognize the name as someone from a software consulting company who worked downstairs from me. So I open up the source code to the project the author was working on here, and find the code from the example.

Small world.


In reading the further examples in the article, I can also see other problems I'll have with this dirty legacy db :)