SQL connections - automatically close?

[Peter.Wayne]

I know that Alpha Five closes open tables automatically at the end of scripts. Does anyone know whether the same is true for SQL AlphaDAO connections? Should they be closed when a script ends or should they be left open?

e.g. in php, the mysql_connect function "opens or reuses a connection to a MySQL server". So in programming in php, it's more efficient not to close ADO connections; the php system doesn't have to reopen a connection to the database engine each time it is called. What happens in Alpha Five? Anyone know?

Thanks.
- Peter Wayne

[Mario Prieto]

Re: SQL connections - automatically close?

It is a matter of taste. Some programmers prefer to open and close a connection everytime is needed.
Others prefer to create a global connection and use it throught the application.

I think if you create a connection in a script when the script closes it destroys all local variables created within the script. It is a good programming practice to close any created connection and not rely on A5 to destroy it.

I always open the connection and at the end destroy it.

[Peter.Wayne]

Re: SQL connections - automatically close?

Mario, I usually close all table pointers at the ends of scripts. But I was not sure whether opening ADO connections is more time-consuming, and whether once A5v8 has opened a connection to MySQL, would it be better to keep the connection open indefinitely. However, I just ran a timing on opening and closing a connection to MySQL:

t1=now()
dim conn as sql::connection
conn.open("{A5API=MySQL,Server='localhost',Port='3306',UserName='root',Password='�������',Database='checkbooks'}")

conn.close()
t2=now()
ui_msg_box("elapsed time",t1+crlf()+t2)

and it turns out that the total elapsed time is between 2 and 3/100ths of a second. So I have no excuse now not to clean up after myself and close the connections I open!