I have two objects related by a one to many. From the one side, I want to find a particular object in the collection based upon an attribute value that can vary per request.

Possibilities include:
- load entire collection and iterate until you find it
- write method with a hql query rather than using collection

We're currently using the second choice above but it still seems wrong. Is there a Hibernate facility that I'm missing that can manage this efficiently?

Thanks,
Jay

Not really. But I'd stick with the 2nd choice. Just make sure you aren't using any crazy cartesian joins or anything. Just do a straight select using the required values.