= SQM The Semantic Query Model (SQM) is Hibernate's representation of an HQL or Criteria query's semantic (meaning). This representation is modeled as an "abstract syntax tree" (AST) - meaning it is a structured tree of nodes where each node represrents an atomic piece of the query. E.g. `SqmSelectClause` represents the query's select clause as you might imagine. That `SqmSelectClause` is ultimately a collection of one or more `SqmSelection` references representing the individual selections to be returned from the query (called the domain results). == The Tree SQM is an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) describing a query from the perspective of the domain model. It uses the Hibernate domain model, which is Hibernate's extension to the JPA model. This model contains no relational mapping information - it simply describes the domain model in mostly Java terms although it does incorporate "classifications" of the type system. E.g. it understand that `Customer` is an entity, but contains no information about the tables, columns, etc. See the `design/type-system-domain.adoc` design doc. For details about this domain model The tree model is defined in the package `org.hibernate.query.sqm.tree` == Building an SQM === HQL === Criteria == Translating an SQM Generic support for walking over the SQM tree via the `org.hibernate.query.sqm.SemanticQueryWalker` contract. More specialized support specifically for translating the SQM into a SQL AST is also defined by `org.hibernate.query.sqm.sql.SqmToSqlAstConverter`. The document `design/sql-ast.adoc` for details about the SQL AST, including its execution.