Question

Is it smart to keep the connection open throughout the entire session?
I made a C# application that connects to a MySql database, the program both reads and writes to it and the application has to be running about 10 hours a day non-stop.

Are there any risk attached to keeping the connection open instead of calling the close() function every time after you’ve plucked something from the database and opening it again when you need something new?

Answer 1

Leaving a connection open for a while is fine, as long as:

1. you don’t have so many concurrently idle connections that you hit the MySQL connection limit;

2. you don’t leave it open for hours without doing anything. The default MySQL connection wait_timeout is 8 hours; leave a connection inactive for that long and when you next come to use it you’ll get a “MySQL server has gone away” error.