implementing ClassCastException when using JPA with Hibernate for polymorphic entity retrieval
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with I am working with a `ClassCastException` when trying to retrieve a list of polymorphic entities using JPA with Hibernate... I have a base class `Animal` and two subclasses `Dog` and `Cat`. When I try to fetch all animals from the database and cast them to `Animal`, I get this behavior: ``` Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: com.example.Cat want to be cast to com.example.Animal ``` Here’s a simplified version of my entity classes: ```java @Entity @Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceType.JOINED) public abstract class Animal { @Id @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY) private Long id; private String name; } @Entity public class Dog extends Animal { private String breed; } @Entity public class Cat extends Animal { private String color; } ``` I've created a repository interface to fetch all animals: ```java public interface AnimalRepository extends JpaRepository<Animal, Long> { List<Animal> findAll(); } ``` Then, in my service class, I retrieve the animals like this: ```java List<Animal> animals = animalRepository.findAll(); for (Animal animal : animals) { System.out.println(animal.getName()); } ``` I assumed that since `Dog` and `Cat` both extend `Animal`, I could treat them as `Animal` instances. However, upon execution, I get the `ClassCastException` when I try to process the list. I’ve checked the database and both `Dog` and `Cat` entries are being stored correctly. I am using Hibernate version 5.4.30.Final with Spring Data JPA. Is there something I am missing in my configuration or entity mapping that could cause this exception? Any help in resolving this scenario would be greatly appreciated! I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning Java. Thanks in advance!