you can use something like that
public user getUser(String username) {
Session session = SessionUtil.sessionFactory.getCurrentSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
Query query = session.createQuery("From user where name=:name");
query.setString("name", username);
user result = (user) query.uniqueResult();
tx.commit();
return result;
}
if you want to use pattern then you can use something like below:
Query query = session.createQuery("From user where name like :name");
query.setString("name", username);
List result = query.list();
Above will use the pattern, and return list of users with matching username pattern.