C# – getting db connection through singleton class

cdesign-patternssingleton

I have created an singleton class, this class returns a database connection. So my question is this connection is also satisfying singleton criteria?
If no, than how I can make it singleton.
Here is the code.

public sealed class SingletonDB
{
    static readonly SingletonDB instance = new SingletonDB();
    static SqlConnection con =new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["mydb"].ConnectionString);

    // Explicit static constructor to tell C# compiler
    // not to mark type as beforefieldinit
    static SingletonDB()
    {
    }

    SingletonDB()
    {
    }

    public static SingletonDB Instance
    {
        get
        {
            return instance;
        }
    }

    public static SqlConnection GetDBConnection()
    {
        return con;
    }
}

Best Answer

Your Singleton is still off.

As far as the singleton pattern goes, please see Jon Skeet's very good and detailed description here : http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/csharp/singleton.html

Using a Singleton for a SqlConnection object is a really, really bad idea. There is no reason to do this whatsoever.

If you are attempting to avoid a performance hit of "new SqlConnection()" or "connection.Open()" be advised that there really is no performance hit there because of the connection pooling going on behind the scenes. Connection Pooling handles the opening/closing of the expensive connections. Not the SqlConnection object.

You won't be able to open multiple SqlDataReaders/Commands with the connection at the same time and will run into thread blocking issues if you are trying to share the same connection object with multiple threads.

The Singleton pattern is the most over used and abused pattern and there are many side effects of the singleton that you may not be aware of. Very good talk about the dangers of singletons here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FRm3VPhseI

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