jdbc - Where to close java PreparedStatements and ResultSets?

Question

Consider the code:

PreparedStatement ps = null;
ResultSet rs = null;
try {
  ps = conn.createStatement(myQueryString);
  rs = ps.executeQuery();
  // process the results...
} catch (java.sql.SQLException e) {
  log.error("an error!", e);
  throw new MyAppException("I'm sorry. Your query did not work.");
} finally {
  ps.close();
  rs.close();
}

The above does not compile, because both PreparedStatement.close() and ResultSet.close() throw a java.sql.SQLException. So do I add a try/catch block to the finally clause? Or move the close statements into the try clause? Or just not bother calling close?

Answer 1

In Java 7, you should not close them explicitly, but use automatic resource management to ensure that resources are closed and exceptions are handled appropriately. Exception handling works like this:

Exception in try | Exception in close | Result
-----------------+--------------------+----------------------------------------
      No         |        No          | Continue normally
      No         |        Yes         | Throw the close() exception
      Yes        |        No          | Throw the exception from try block
      Yes        |        Yes         | Add close() exception to main exception
                 |                    |  as "suppressed", throw main exception

Hopefully that makes sense. In allows pretty code, like this:

private void doEverythingInOneSillyMethod(String key)
  throws MyAppException
{
  try (Connection db = ds.getConnection()) {
    db.setReadOnly(true);
    ...
    try (PreparedStatement ps = db.prepareStatement(...)) {
      ps.setString(1, key);
      ...
      try (ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery()) {
        ...
      }
    }
  } catch (SQLException ex) {
    throw new MyAppException("Query failed.", ex);
  }
}

---

Prior to Java 7, it's best to use nested finally blocks, rather than testing references for null.

The example I'll show might look ugly with the deep nesting, but in practice, well-designed code probably isn't going to create a connection, statement, and results all in the same method; often, each level of nesting involves passing a resource to another method, which uses it as a factory for another resource. With this approach, exceptions from a close() will mask an exception from inside the try block. That can be overcome, but it results in even more messy code, and requires a custom exception class that provides the "suppressed" exception chaining present in Java 7.

Connection db = ds.getConnection();
try {
  PreparedStatement ps = ...;
  try {
    ResultSet rs = ...
    try {
      ...
    }
    finally {
      rs.close();
    }
  } 
  finally {
    ps.close();
  }
} 
finally {
  db.close();
}