Question

What would the equivalent of Oracle’s DECODE() function be in the Hibernate Criteria API?

An SQL example of what I need to do:

SELECT DECODE(FIRST_NAME, NULL, LAST_NAME, FIRST_NAME) as NAME ORDER BY NAME;

Which returns LAST_NAME to NAME in the event that FIRST_NAME is NULL.

I would prefer to use the Criteria API but could use HQL if there’s no other way.

Answer 1

Ended up adding a formula for it:

<property name="name" formula="coalesce(first_name, last_name)"/>

I’m concerned about cross-database problems and possibly efficiency problems with this approach so I’m willing to change the accepted answer.