dbOpen() dbClose

Anon

Question for you elite PHP/MySql programmers:

Rather than issuing an open/connect and closedb for each db call, could I just put
a connection in the page header and a close in the page footer?

Sounds far more efficient to me. How do others handle this? I've got
numerous includes that select/update the MySql db and would like to
make the calls as efficient as possible.

Thanks for all who respond!

Anon

You could use pconnect(), which opens a persistent connection.

Anon

When is the persistent connection closed? When the user leaves?

I used to do this but sometimes, when testing and hitting that refresh key continually... the database and Apache server go byebye... I think its due to memory not being freed due to the pconnect... Does everyone use a persistent connection?

Anon

Please... someone... show me the light!

Anon

It would help to know which one of the database engine or webserver goes down.
MySQL is quite robust and index corruption with it is almost impossible. But, it has a price : it scales up badly. As a rule of thumb, you hit the wall at something like thirty or so queries per second with MyISAM tables.
As to overloading Apache, it is possible, but it shouldn't happen by simply reloading a page, even if you are world champion in mouse clicking 😉
pconnect does not free memory immediately, as it keeps the connection opened for some time. However, the amount of memory allocated to each connection is really low, especially when you compare it with Oracle ;-)

Anon

Use a database abstraction layer like PEAR. This is a requirement.

Next, opinion: I use a file called set_environment.php which I use to create a global $db object which I then use whenever I need to query something. If I have to query while inside an iteration of a result set, no problem. Using pear, it works like this:

$res = $db->query('select * from user');
while ($row = $res->fetchRow()) {
$someValue = $db->getOne('select x from y where z = ' . $row['field']);
}

pear.php.net for questions.