Core Java™ 2 Volume II - Advanced Features, Seventh Edition

Row Sets

Scrollable result sets are powerful, but they have a major drawback. You need to keep the database connection open during the entire user interaction. However, users can walk away from their computer for a long time, leaving the connection occupied. That is not good—database connections are scarce resources. In such a situation, use a row set. The RowSet interface extends the ResultSet interface, but row sets don't have to be tied to a database connection.

Row sets are also suitable if you need to move a query result to a different tier of a complex application, or to another device such as a cell phone. You would never want to move a result set—its data structures can be huge, and it is tethered to the database connection.

The javax.sql.rowset ...