How do I configure Hibernate not to overwrite values in DB with the null attributes?

Can you not just set the property to null in the entity?

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Can you not just set the property to null in the entity?

Ok, you're saying you have null properties in the entity, but there is real data in the database? How are you loading the entity? The entity should be loaded from the database, right? So, my questions then would be 'why are the properties in the entity null, if they have real values in the database?'

Where are these annoying nulls coming from?

It's an enterprise platform where persistent objects are exposed to the web tier via the EJB. There is a possibilty where the new instance of the persistent object is created and passed back to the middle tier. In that case, some values in DB can get wiped out.