Best practice for reusing SqlConnection

Question

I\'ve come from Java experience and am trying to start with C#. I\'ve read SqlConnection SqlCommand SqlDataReader IDisposable and I can understand that the best practice to

Answer 1

Yes, you can create a global SqlConnection instance. In my case I use the SqlConnection as member of my DataContext that I access via Singleton.

public class DatabaseDataContext : DataContext
{
    private static DatabaseDataContext instance;
    private SqlConnection sqlConnection;        
    private SqlTransaction sqlTransaction;

    //...

    public static DatabaseDataContext Instance
    {
        get
        {
            return instance ?? (instance = new DatabaseDataContext(connectionString));
        }
        set
        {
            instance = value;
        }
    }
}

You can encapsulate your transactions by closing and opening this connection, i.e.:

DatabaseDataContext.Instance.sqlConnection.Open();

// your transactions...

sqlConnection.Close();

Or you might leave the connection open, but instead specifically begin and end transactions:

DatabaseDataContext.Instance.sqlConnection.Open();

sqlTransaction = sqlConnection.BeginTransaction("Example Insert users");

try{
    // ...your first transaction

    sqlTransaction.Commit();
}
catch{sqlTransaction.Rollback();}

sqlTransaction = sqlConnection.BeginTransaction("Update baked breads");

try{
    // ...your second transaction

    sqlTransaction.Commit();
}
catch{sqlTransaction.Rollback();}

// Close the connection at some point
sqlConnection.Close();