Connection pooling is not really connection pooling? Right?

Question

Here's what I don't understand, I'm trying to pool connections but everywhere I look I see the following code:
Connection con = null;
try {
con = dataSource.getConnection("username", "password");
} catch (Exception ex}
finally {
con.close();
Why is the connection closed? Isn't it supposed to be "pooled"? I have read that connections need to be closed to be reused, then what's the point of "pooling connections"? I mean, I have closely followed MySQL server connections and appears that connections are indeed closed, apparently, what "connection pooling" does is save some connection information (which is what apparently is the only thing that is "pooled") which is used to establish connections instead of reusing them.
When I start my Java application, DataSource.getConnection() creates a connection and MySQL Administrator shows a new connection in a list of connections to MySQL. I get com.mysql.jdbc.Connection@13e6657 for that connection. After con.close() is called, that connection is removed from the list of connections and when DataSource.getConnection() is called again, I get com.mysql.jdbc.Connection34o3422 and a new connection shows up in MySQL Administrator.
So what's the point in calling this "connection pooling"? I mean, this isn't really pooling connection but rather saving some data in the memory that is used to create connections, not saving them.

Answer 1

^ The fact that a connection is pooled is usually abstracted away from the client, such that a call to the Connection's close() method doesn't actually close the connection, but instead returns it to the pool. The example you cited above says as much. The code that @OP posted could very easily be pooled behind the scenes.
Message was edited by:
bckrispi