Hi I believe I just discovered little bug in Hibernate 3.2.1. If you have a table named VC and a column with the same name (VC) and you define this HQL: Strinh hbsql="update VC set timestamp='xxxx' where VC =:vcId" session.createQuery(hbsql).setString("vcId", aVC.getVcId()).executeUpdate(); You will get a Nullpointer in SessionFactoryHelper.findSQLFunction there is a easy workaround, just rename the VC java object to something different then the column name. I post it here and maybe someone wll be helped by it, it took me some hours before I found it. I believe this occured in 3.2.1 because it has worked in an erlier version, 3.0.x. (don't rember exactly which we used earlier) Here is a trace: java.lang.NullPointerException at org.hibernate.hql.ast.util.SessionFactoryHelper.findSQLFunction(SessionF actoryHelper.java:342) at org.hibernate.hql.ast.tree.IdentNode.getDataType(IdentNode.java:266) at org.hibernate.hql.ast.tree.BinaryLogicOperatorNode.extractDataType(Binar yLogicOperatorNode.java:168) at org.hibernate.hql.ast.tree.BinaryLogicOperatorNode.initialize(BinaryLogi cOperatorNode.java:34) at org.hibernate.hql.ast.HqlSqlWalker.prepareLogicOperator(HqlSqlWalker.jav a:1006) at org.hibernate.hql.antlr.HqlSqlBaseWalker.comparisonExpr(HqlSqlBaseWalker .java:3992) at org.hibernate.hql.antlr.HqlSqlBaseWalker.logicalExpr(HqlSqlBaseWalker.ja va:1762) at org.hibernate.hql.antlr.HqlSqlBaseWalker.logicalExpr(HqlSqlBaseWalker.ja va:1690) at org.hibernate.hql.antlr.HqlSqlBaseWalker.logicalExpr(HqlSqlBaseWalker.ja va:1687) at org.hibernate.hql.antlr.HqlSqlBaseWalker.whereClause(HqlSqlBaseWalker.ja va:776) at org.hibernate.hql.antlr.HqlSqlBaseWalker.updateStatement(HqlSqlBaseWalke r.java:358) at org.hibernate.hql.antlr.HqlSqlBaseWalker.statement(HqlSqlBaseWalker.java :237) at org.hibernate.hql.ast.QueryTranslatorImpl.analyze(QueryTranslatorImpl.ja va:228) at org.hibernate.hql.ast.QueryTranslatorImpl.doCompile(QueryTranslatorImpl. java:160) at org.hibernate.hql.ast.QueryTranslatorImpl.compile(QueryTranslatorImpl.ja va:111) at org.hibernate.engine.query.HQLQueryPlan.<init>(HQLQueryPlan.java:77) at org.hibernate.engine.query.HQLQueryPlan.<init>(HQLQueryPlan.java:56) at org.hibernate.engine.query.QueryPlanCache.getHQLQueryPlan(QueryPlanCache .java:72) at org.hibernate.impl.AbstractSessionImpl.getHQLQueryPlan(AbstractSessionIm pl.java:133) at org.hibernate.impl.AbstractSessionImpl.createQuery(AbstractSessionImpl.j ava:112) at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.createQuery(SessionImpl.java:1623) at com.teliasonera.wal.inventory.atmpvc.dao.SybaseATMPVCDAO.updateVC(Sybase ATMPVCDAO.java:398) at com.teliasonera.wal.inventory.atmpvc.ATMPVCHandler.updateVC(ATMPVCHandle r.java:203) at com.teliasonera.wal.inventory.atmpvc.ATMPVCHandler.updateVC(ATMPVCHandle r.java:197) at com.teliasonera.wal.inventory.atmpvc.ATMPVCHandlerTest.testUpdateVC(ATMP VCHandlerTest.java:164) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.jav a:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessor Impl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585) at junit.framework.TestCase.runTest(TestCase.java:154) at junit.framework.TestCase.runBare(TestCase.java:127) at junit.framework.TestResult$1.protect(TestResult.java:106) at junit.framework.TestResult.runProtected(TestResult.java:124) at junit.framework.TestResult.run(TestResult.java:109) at junit.framework.TestCase.run(TestCase.java:118) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.junit3.JUnit3TestReference.run(JUn it3TestReference.java:128) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.ja va:38) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTe stRunner.java:460) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTe stRunner.java:673) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRun ner.java:386) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRu nner.java:196)