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.

Example :

List employees = session.createCriteria(Employee.class)

.add(Restrictions.like(”name”, “a%”) )

.add(Restrictions.like(”address”, “Boston”))

.addOrder(Order.asc(”name”) )

.list();