Handling Data Streams

The difference between these two code snippets lies in how they handle the SMTP connection object and its lifecycle.

with smtplib.SMTP(self.smtp_server_address) as connection:

• This snippet uses a context manager (with statement) to create an SMTP connection object (smtplib.SMTP) to the specified SMTP server address (self.smtp_server_address).
• The with statement ensures that the connection object is automatically closed and cleaned up after the block of code inside the with statement is executed. This means that the SMTP connection is automatically closed at the end of the block, regardless of whether an exception occurs or not.
• This is the preferred way to handle resources that need to be cleaned up after use, as it ensures proper cleanup and helps prevent resource leaks.

connection = smtplib.SMTP(self.smtp_server_address)

• This snippet creates an SMTP connection object (smtplib.SMTP) to the specified SMTP server address (self.smtp_server_address) and assigns it to the variable connection.
• However, there’s no guarantee that the connection object will be properly closed and cleaned up after it’s no longer needed. It’s the responsibility of the programmer to manually close the connection when it’s finished being used.
• If the connection is not explicitly closed using connection.quit() or connection.close(), it may lead to resource leaks, especially in long-running programs.