Hi Steve, I agree that backwards compatibility should be the holy grail. On the other hand our hibernate Model contains two big columns like mentioned in HHH-3422 and has consequently the Same Problem since hibernate 2.x. So we have to use the suggested Patch within a derived oracle dialect. I would like to use the hibernate dialect for oracle. If the circumstance for this error is still unclear i can provide a sample. But it is really just as simple als putting two fat columns in one table. Thanks so fair, Carsten |