How to inject string properties containing < character into Spring beans?

Question

I have following bean definition for my DAO -

<bean id="userDao" class="UserDao">
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
<property name="queryPurgeInvalidReferrals" value="delete from reference where date < ?" />
</bean>

I am getting the error - The value of attribute "value" associated with an element type "property" must not contain the '<' character.

Answer 1

Since Spring config is an XML file, you need to escape < according to XML syntax:

<property name="queryPurgeInvalidReferrals" 
    value="delete from reference where date &lt; ?" />