I've got a legacy database model that frequently uses columns with comma seperated String enumerations, like "cat,dog,bird".

I can't change the db model, but from my object model I'd like to access the list of values stored in one of these columns like a Collection, e.g. I want to use get(), append(), insert(), remove() and iterator().

toString() should yield the original value.

My first thought was to implement a Custom Value Type that internally uses java.util.StringTokenizer. Is this doable? Maybe someone's already implemented it and could post the code?

Where can I get examples for custom value types?

Regards,

Andreas

This should be doable I think. Just look at the source in net.sf.hibnerate.type, writing a CustomType is not that difficult.