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org.hibernate
Interface Criteria

Criteria is a simplified API for retrieving entities by composing Criterion objects. This is a very convenient approach for functionality like "search" screens where there is a variable number of conditions to be placed upon the result set.

The Session is a factory for Criteria. Criterion instances are usually obtained via the factory methods on Restrictions. eg. 

 List cats = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
     .add( Restrictions.like("name", "Iz%") )
     .add( Restrictions.gt( "weight", new Float(minWeight) ) )
     .addOrder( Order.asc("age") )
     .list();
 
 List cats = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
     .createCriteria("kittens")
         .add( Restrictions.like("name", "Iz%") )
     .list();
 
 List cats = session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
     .createAlias("kittens", "kit")
     .add( Restrictions.like("kit.name", "Iz%") )
     .list();