Question

I use a pattern that looks something like this often. I’m wondering if this is alright or if there is a best practice that I am not applying here.

Specifically I’m wondering; in the case that an exception is thrown is the code that I have in the finally block enough to ensure that the connection is closed appropriately?

public class SomeDataClass : IDisposable {     private SqlConnection _conn;      //constructors and methods      private DoSomethingWithTheSqlConnection()     {         //some code excluded for brevity          try         {             using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(SqlQuery.CountSomething, _SqlConnection))             {                 _SqlConnection.Open();                 countOfSomething = Convert.ToInt32(cmd.ExecuteScalar());             }         }         finally         {             //is this the best way?             if (_SqlConnection.State == ConnectionState.Closed)                 _SqlConnection.Close();         }          //some code excluded for brevity     }      public Dispose()     {         _conn.Dispose();     } } 

Answer 1

Wrap your database handling code inside a ‘using’

using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection (...)) {     // Whatever happens in here, the connection is      // disposed of (closed) at the end. }