Best practice question

[sreenath205]

Hi All,

I know the title of the post does not make much sense, I am sorry for that.

The question i have is consider this piece of code

Connection mConnection = null;

mConnection = getConnection(); //This is a private method whic returns a connection object

Now consider this

Connection mConnection = getConnection();

Which is the best approach and if possible please give a small explanation/pointers/links why it is the best??

Thanks
Sreenath M

 

[obadare]

both approaches i believe are ok, however the approach used depends on the scope of connection object.
The first approach means u can use the connection object outside the scope of the getConnection() method, wheras the second limits the use to the scope of Connection con=getConnection()

 

[DaWickedRebel]

I may not be 100% correct in this (who ever is?) but I believe the best practice in a case like this is to:

1. Declare all variables at the top of the scope in which they are to be used.

For instance, a class level variable would be declared as follows:

public class Connector{
private Connection aConnection;
//..other variables and methods

A method variable would be as follows:

private void doSomething(){
Connection con;
//..do stuff..
}

2. Only initialize variables that are intended to have a default value, otherwise intialize them as needed.

In this and most cases, null is rarely an acceptable or intended value. I never initialize to null unless I have to.

Am example of what I mean:

public class Connector{
  private Connection aConnection;

  public void doSomething(){
    try{
      aConnection = getConnection();
    }
    catch(SQLException ex){
      ex.printStackTrace();
      aConnection = null;//Now i think i need null
    }
   if(null == aConnection){
      //Error logic
   }
  }
  private void getConection() throws SQLException{
    //Connection code here
  } 
}

With a little more thought and ingenuity I bet I could find a way to eliminate null from the picture, with perhaps an Object of type InvalidConnection that implements Connection and throws meaningful errors when you try to use it's methods.

Maybe a little off topic, but those are some of my thoughts...

Comments?

Rich