Question

Do I really need to do mysql_close()? Why or why not?

Is there a trigger that closes the link after mysql_connect even if I don’t do mysql_close?

Answer 1

In most cases calling mysql_close will not make any difference, performance-wise. But it’s always good practice to close out resources (file handles, open sockets, database connections, etc.) that your program is no longer using.

This is especially true if you’re doing something that may potentially take a few seconds – for instance, reading and parsing data from a REST API. Since the API call is going over the line, negative network conditions can cause your script to block for several seconds. In this case, the appropriate time to open the database connection is after the REST call is completed and parsed.

To sum up my answer, the two big rules are:

1. Only allocate resources (file handles, sockets, database connections, etc.) when your program is ready to use them.
2. Free up resources immediately after your program is done with them.