Question on Method 'getRequestDispatcher'

Question

Hi all,
I am wondering is it a good way to forward a request in try block but close database connection in the finally block. Below is the code snippet for your reference:
Connection conn = null;
try {
    conn = initConn();
    boolean bool = validateAcct();
    if (bool) {
        getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher("/acctProfile.jsp")
    } else {
        getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher("/error.jsp")
} catch (Exception e) {
    // Empty block here
} finally {
    if (!(conn == null || conn.isClosed())) {
        conn.closed();
        conn = null;
}The codes in finally block is executed even the forward action is invoked in try block. So, is this a good way to handle database connection without resulting connection leaking issue in application server (IBM Websphere App Server)? Hope to get some advise from this forum.
Thank you.

Answer 1

Other bad tastes in this code:
1. Connection conn = null;
try {
    conn = initConn();in case <tt>initConn()</tt> fails there is no meaningfull way to handle this, so let the Exception comming from <tt>initConn()</tt> simply fall through this method:
Connection conn = initConn();
try { 2. boolean bool = validateAcct();is a meaningless variable name. Also since there is only onlne place where bool is read ist's not needed here at all.
There could be only one reason to have a variable here and this is if the method <tt>validateAcct()</tt> cannot be renamed to <tt>isAcctValid()</tt>. In this only one case a variable <tt>boolean isValidateAcct = validateAcct()</tt> meight be accepted.
3. } finally {   
    if (!(conn == null || conn.isClosed())) { When following point 1 conn cannot be null here ~(provided that <tt>initConn()</tt> has been carefully coded to either return a working connection or throw an exception).~ Also there is nothing within the try block that closes the connection. So the entire if is not needed.
4. conn = null; The reference <tt>conn</tt> is defined within the scope of the method. So if the method ends the reference will be destroyed. So there is no need to explicitly set the reference to null .
bye
TPD