Where to close java PreparedStatements and ResultSets?

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?

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();
}

If you're really hand-rolling your own jdbc it definitely gets messy. The close() in the finally needs to get wrapped with its own try catch, which, at the very least, is ugly. You can't skip the close, although the resources will get cleared when the connection is closed (which might not be right away, if you're using a pool). Actually, one of the main selling points of using a framework (e.g. hibernate) to manage your db access is to manage the connection and result set handling so you don't forget to close.

You can do something simple like this, which at least hides the mess, and guarantees that you don't forget something.

public static void close(ResultSet rs, Statement ps, Connection conn)
{
    if (rs!=null)
    {
        try
        {
            rs.close();

        }
        catch(SQLException e)
        {
            logger.error("The result set cannot be closed.", e);
        }
    }
    if (ps != null)
    {
        try
        {
            ps.close();
        } catch (SQLException e)
        {
            logger.error("The statement cannot be closed.", e);
        }
    }
    if (conn != null)
    {
        try
        {
            conn.close();
        } catch (SQLException e)
        {
            logger.error("The data source connection cannot be closed.", e);
        }
    }

}

and then,

finally {
    close(rs, ps, null); 
}

For file I/O, I generally add a try/catch to the finally block. However, you must be careful not to throw any exceptions from the finally block, since they will cause the original exception (if any) to be lost.

See this article for a more specific example of database connection closing.

Don't waste your time coding low-level exception management, use an higher-level API like Spring-JDBC, or a custom wrapper around connection/statement/rs objects, to hide the messy try-catch ridden code.

Also note:

"When a Statement object is closed, its current ResultSet object, if one exists, is also closed. "

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/sql/Statement.html#close()

It should be sufficient to close only the PreparedStatement in a finally, and only if it is not already closed. If you want to be really particular though, close the ResultSet FIRST, not after closing the PreparedStatement (closing it after, like some of the examples here, should actually guarantee an exception, since it is already closed).