[FIXED] Differences between attributes in Request, Session and ServletContext

Issue

I am having trouble understanding the differences between these 3 ways of setting attributes:

// String as attribute of request
req.setAttribute("name", "Sluggo");

// Integer as attribute of session
req.getSession().setAttribute("age", 10);

// Date as attribute of context
getServletContext().setAttribute("today", new Date());

1. What are the differences?
2. When should you use each?

Solution

Those three have different scopes:

• request attributes live for the life of that request/response cycle

• session attributes for the life of that session

• ServletContext is across the servlet context and it lives until context gets destroyed.

Answered By - jmj