Retrieving all rows of a table without HQL?
Solution 1:
You can use
session.createCriteria(MyEntity.class).list();
for example.
Solution 2:
HQL doesn't use table names. It uses entity names. And entity names are (by default) class names. So you can use
String hql = "select a from " + TheEntity.class.getSimpleName() + " a";
But I would favor readability over type safety here, and use
String hql = "select a from TheEntity a";
You should have automated tests for your queries anyway.