OO programming - when to update underlying database record

[ThePete]

Greetings,

I'm new to OO programing so please tell me if I'm barking up the wrong tree here.

I'm trying to decide between:

1. updating the underlying database record for an object everytime a property is changed

and

2. having a commitChanges method to update the record in the database.

The first means that you can't forget to update the database but it also has a whole lot of database work which might slow things down?

The second option means only one database instruction but it has to be remembered.

I'd value your opinion on which way to go.

Thanks in advance

Pete

[dagon]

I would do 1 - what if something breaks, crashes between the property changes and your commit being called.

[NogDog]

I'm not sure that any one solution would be correct for all cases.

I often set each value separately (either via separate setter methods and/or the __set() "magic method"), so in that case I would not want to update the DB after each value is changed. Instead I use an update() method when the code logic says to me that it's time to save the change.

You could even use a __destroy() method to update the DB when the object is destroyed, perhaps coupled with some sort of "needs updating" object variable that is set to true when any method that sets/changes a value is called and is set to false whenever the update() method is called.