Time. Opening a db connection is time consuming. There are many levels
involved (making the connection, authentication, etc).. Even worse if
the connection is over tcp/ip because that overhead comes in on top as
well.
Have you timed it?
It would be interesting to actually run a script that opens, retrieves, and inserts data -- let's say 50k times. What's the time difference between one open, 50k retrieves/inserts, and one close-- as compared 50k opens retrieve/insert closes?
Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
You see, my habit stems from doing a lot of communication programming
-- it was my experience that you open a communication port
(file/channel/port/whatever); establish a link; exchange data; and
close it. There's no need to leave it open.
Just because you can close it doesn't mean you have to.
Everyone has their own way.
tedd
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