I have a hibernate entity that represents a table row that maps as against itself.
@Entity
@Table(name = "blog_post", schema = "webapps")
public class BlogPost implements java.io.Serializable {

/**
*
*/
private static final long serialVersionUID = -3645846346609906425L;
private Long blogPostId;
private BlogPost blogPost;
private Date postDate;
private String title;
private String content;
private String author;
private Set<BlogPost> blogPosts = new HashSet<BlogPost>(0);


@Id
@Column(name = "blog_post_id", unique = true, nullable = false)
public Long getBlogPostId() {
return this.blogPostId;
}

public void setBlogPostId(Long blogPostId) {
this.blogPostId = blogPostId;
}

@ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
@JoinColumn(name = "parent_post_id")
public BlogPost getBlogPost() {
return this.blogPost;
}

public void setBlogPost(BlogPost blogPost) {
this.blogPost = blogPost;
}

@Temporal(TemporalType.TIMESTAMP)
@Column(name = "post_date", nullable = false, length = 29)
public Date getPostDate() {
return this.postDate;
}

public void setPostDate(Date postDate) {
this.postDate = postDate;
}

@Column(name = "title")
public String getTitle() {
return this.title;
}

public void setTitle(String title) {
this.title = title;
}

@Column(name = "content", nullable = false)
public String getContent() {
return this.content;
}

public void setContent(String content) {
this.content = content;
}

@Column(name = "author", length = 256)
public String getAuthor() {
return this.author;
}

public void setAuthor(String author) {
this.author = author;
}

@OneToMany(cascade = CascadeType.ALL, fetch = FetchType.LAZY, mappedBy = "blogPost")
public Set<BlogPost> getBlogPosts() {
return this.blogPosts;
}

public void setBlogPosts(Set<BlogPost> blogPosts) {
this.blogPosts = blogPosts;
}


}

In most cases, I do not want to hidrate the Set of BlogPost objects. So I do not want the Set to be eagerly fetched except when I want it. How do I selectively trigger eager fetching in either criteria or hql?

Keep the associations lazy, and indicate eager fetching specifically on those Queries or HQL you want.

In Criteria:


in HQL: