Getting error while executing criteria query on enum column in mysql table hibernate

Question

This is the code :

Session session = sessionFactory.getCurrentSession();
Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(Contact.class)
    .add(Restrictions.like("gender", "male", MatchMode.ANYWHERE)));
List<Object[]> contactList = criteria.list();

Where gender is enum type column in Contact.java

@Entity
@Table(name = "contact_master")
public class Contact {

      public enum Gender {
           MALE,FEMALE
      }

      @Column(name = "gender")
      @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
      private Gender gender;

      public Gender getGender() {
         return gender;
      }

      public void setGender(Gender gender) {
          this.gender = gender;
      }

}

When i run above code i am getting exception like :

java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.String cannot be cast to java.lang.Enum

Answer 1

You can define another non-insertable and non-updatable field of String type mapped to the same column:

@Entity
@Table(name = "contact_master")
public class Contact {

      public enum Gender {
           MALE,FEMALE
      }

      @Column(name = "gender")
      @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
      private Gender gender;

      @Column(name = "gender", insertable = false, updatable = false)
      private String genderAsText;

      public Gender getGender() {
         return gender;
      }

      public void setGender(Gender gender) {
          this.gender = gender;
      }
}

You don't need getters and setters for it and you can use it only in queries in which you need to treat gender as plain text:

Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(Contact.class)
    .add(Restrictions.ilike("genderAsText", "male", MatchMode.ANYWHERE)));

Note that I also use Restrictions.ilike method as you probably want the comparison to be case insensitive.

Answer 2

define your enum outside in a saperate file so that you can access it from anywhere and then use it like this:

Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(Contact.class)
   .add(Restrictions.like("gender", Gender.MALE, MatchMode.ANYWHERE)));

---

EDIT 1

As you specified, if the values are dynamic, then you can define a function like this in your enum.

public enum Gender {
    MALE,FEMALE;

    public static Gender getGender(String strGender) {
        if(strGender.equalsIgnoreCase("m") | strGender.equalsIgnoreCase("ma") | strGender.equalsIgnoreCase("male")) 
            return Gender.MALE;

        if(strGender.equalsIgnoreCase("f") | strGender.equalsIgnoreCase("fema") | strGender.equalsIgnoreCase("female")) 
            return Gender.FEMALE;

        return null;
    }
}

and then you can use them like:

Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(Contact.class)
   .add(Restrictions.like("gender", Gender.getGender("fema"), MatchMode.ANYWHERE)));

Answer 3

Try this instead (assuming the intention is to only return male contacts):

Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(Contact.class)
    .add(Restrictions.eq("gender", Contact.Gender.MALE));