Jdbc - updating multiple tables

Question

Hello
I am working on an old app using jdbc. There is a requirement to update several tables at once
At the moment it is done roughly as follows
//set autocommit to false
PreparedStatement ps1 = connection.prepareStatement( sql_1 );
//set parameters on ps1
PreparedStatement ps2 = connection.prepareStatement( sql_2 );
//set parameters on ps2
...and so on
//execute updates on each statement
connection.commit();
However shouldnt this be done with batch processing? Are there any advantages/disadvantages to the above procedure?
many thanks
Stephen

Answer 1

Batching should be faster. Let me guesstimate some numbers:
A simple insert with not too many columns might take 5 ms. Do that ten times and it'll be 50 ms. A hundred inserts 500 ms.
If you batch the inserts, one insert will still take 5 ms. Ten inserts might take 10 ms. A hundred inserts 50 ms.
So you need to figure: how many inserts are you really doing and how often. If you are talking about saving half a second twice a day, stop messing with that already working and debugged code. Or do you insert 10,000 rows every minute all around the clock - at which point you may care significantly more.
If you find that you might care, time your setup. Time the inserts you do now, then time it with batching. Different databases and drivers will greatly affect your mileage. There may be databases whose wire protocol does not even support batching.