What exactly does the dispose method do? If I am accessing the connection pretty frequently is it still ok to dispose of it?

When an object impliments IDisposable, it means it has a Dispose() method, which cleans up any objects that the object has created for its own use. It should be called right before the object goes out of scope.

If you don't call it, those resources will be released *eventually* do to the .NET Garbage Collector. But, why wait? Call .Dispose() as frequently as possible ;-).

is it ok to use this method for datalists and grids etc? I noticed you didn't use it in the Public Function GetArt() As SqlDataReader...

Yeah, you can adapt it to use a DataSet. But, from a performance standpoint, you're better off using SqlDataReader; there is much less overhead. You can bind a SqlDataReader to DataGrids and most other controls that databind.

Are we talking about the same thing here? I mean the dispose method . I just read an article saying you should always dispose. So wherever I use a command or a connection I should dispose of them once I'm done am I correct?

http://www.lhotka.net/WeBlog/PermaLi...d-f9b4ecf4582f

Yup, dispose of them once your done. We are talking about the same thing... the dispose method isn't just another method of that class, it was inherited (and probably overridden in that class) because the object impliments the IDisposable interface .