put $link in $_SESSION or pass as parameter

hwttdz

I needed to use a link to a mysql database in a function that was a few levels deep in a script, so I had the choice of either passing the $link along through all the parameters or putting it in the $SESSION data, I ended up going with $SESSION, but didn't have a lot of justification. Is there any strong reason why you should do one or the other? thanks.

halojoy

.
Hello Amateur Programmer!
You know how to provide us some PHP code ????

no wonder, some never gets any answers ....

// while others have all the fun
echo '<b>fun</b>';
$timeisnow = time();
echo " at " . $timeisnow . " oclock (swedish time)";
exit;

Drakla

What do you mean by a 'link' to the database, a primary key or something?

Don't worry about using sessions if they're useful - just avoid logic clash like what happened here.

I had an article edit page on a site that saved the ID of the article in a session, start editing article 123, then also open another window and start editing article 567, then press submit on the first one - 2nd article gets overwritten as article=567 is now in the session.

hwttdz

By link I mean, I'm sorry I thought it was fairly common reference to call this connection variable a link.

$link = @mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'password') or die("Could not connect to MySQL");

By pass a parameter I mean

//start main
function1($link)
//end main

function function1($link)
{
     do some stuff;
     function2($link);
}

function function2($link)
{
     do some stuff;
     function3($link);
}

function function3($link)
{
     do some stuff;
     function4($link);
}

function4($link)
{
     mysql query involving link;
}

by use sessions I mean

//start main
$_SESSION['link']=$link;
function1();
//end main

function function1()
{
     do some stuff;
     function2();
}

function function2()
{
     do some stuff;
     function3();
}

function function3()
{
     do some stuff;
     function4();
}

function4()
{
     $link=$_SESSION['link'];
     mysql query involving $link;
}

So in the first you're just kind of passing $link through all the other functions even though it's not needed there you never call the end function explicitly from main. In the second you avoid doing this by putting it in session data. I was wondering if one or the other of these two methods is preferable.