I have what seems to be a simple request, but I have found it very difficult to do.

I have a scalar collection of strings for an object that represent (choose all that apply) answers.

I want a query to find only the objects that contain a particular answer in their string collection.

I tried an HQL query "from Member m where ? in elements(skills)" this generates a subquery where its selects all the member fields and then tries "where ? in (select skill from memberSkills)"

What I really want is:
"where m.id in (select memberid from memberSkills where skill = ?)


Here is the mapping of the skills collection on Member:
<set
name="skills"
table="memberSkills"

<key
column="member_id"
>

</key>

<element
column="skill"
type="string"
not-null="true"
unique="false"
/>

</set>

For the life of me I cannot figure out how to query a member where skill = "Public Speaking"

Since it not an association I cannot do something like:

From Member where member.skills.name = ?

I was having the same problem as you, and I came across an earlier post that solved this problem. Take a look at the replies of the following post:

http://forum.hibernate.org/viewtopic.php?t=962151

Good luck