Just for completeness: if I specify the mapping explicitly, i.e. tell it that the field of type java.lang.Integer maps to the database type INTEGER it deploys but fails on the first create with the following Oracle error: Log.error:0: java.rmi.RemoteException: error in createCompany ; nested exception is: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException: java.rmi.RemoteException: createCompany failed; nested exception is: javax.ejb.CreateException: Error creating EntityBean: ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes javax.ejb.CreateException: Error creating EntityBean: ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes Is this Oracle specific or do generally not allow mapping of java.lang.Integer to an INTEGER column? -- (-) Robert Krüger (-) SIGNAL 7 Gesellschaft für Informationstechnologie mbH (-) Brüder-Knauß-Str. 79 - 64285 Darmstadt, (-) Tel: 06151 665401, Fax: 06151 665373 (-) [EMAIL PROTECTED], www.signal7.de