I have a silly question. Is there a difference between unset() and ibase_close() in terms of ending connection to Firebird Database using ibase_connect()? I know that some people use unset() to PDO connections etc.
Like:
$connection = ibase_connect(SOME PARAMETERS HERE);
And then:
unset($connection);
or
ibase_close($connection);
If they both are behaving the same, maybe one function is faster than the other one?
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Answer
My knowledge of PHP is rudimentary at best, but as far as I know there is a distinct difference.
The function ibase_close($connection) will send a message to the database server, so the server releases its connection resources and then it closes the connection, while unset($connection) will only delete the variable $connection.
My knowledge of PHP and the firebird-php/interbase driver is not sufficient to know for sure if using unset will trigger a cleanup or close of the connection, but a quick scan of the firebird-php sources doesn’t show any such mechanism. My suggestion is that you should be explicit and use ibase_close before you call unset, so you’re sure resources (including serverside resources) are released properly.