Database connection with multipul objects

[Shagin]

Ok, lets say i have many objects on a page, and these objects access tables in a database. Would it be better to have each object open and close its own connection, or would it be better to create 1 connection at the start of the page, and pass that connection to all the objects that need it. And disconnect at the end of the entire script.

I'm not sure what i mean by better myself, but im thinking that the less connections to open, the faster the page would load. But i also think that if a page is hogging a connection for the whole time, won't there be less connections for other pages to use?

I debated this in my head all night while lieing in bed, and i dont know which is "better". What do you guys think?

[barand]

My vote goes for the 'connect once' approach on the grounds that connecting adds a time overhead to your queries.

[superwormy]

For lots of queries, the time it takes to establish teh connection to the database can actually be longer than it takes to run the actual query :-)

The connect-once approach is definitally the best one, if you connect each time you put a lot of overhead in because of connections and disconnectoins, and you also use a lot more daabase connections at the same time.

You can actually try it sometimes and see the difference. I remember altering a shopping cart system from connection on each query to connecting only at the start and end... it cut script execution time by 30 or 35%