I have the following code in Java:

if(!conn.isClosed())
{
    conn.close();
}

Instead of working, I am awarded with:

java.sql.SQLException: Connection already closed

My connection object is a Snaq.db.CacheConnection

I checked the JavaDocs for isClosed, and they state that:

This method generally cannot be called to determine whether a connection to a database is valid or invalid. A typical client can determine that a connection is invalid by catching any exceptions that might be thrown when an operation is attempted.

So my questions are:

1) What good is JDBC's isClosed() anyway? Since when do we use Exceptions in Java to check for validity?

2) What is the correct pattern to close a database? Should I just close and swallow exceptions?

3) Any idea why would SnaqDB be closing the connection? (My backend is a Postgres 8.3)