I'm hoping this will be a rather simple question to answer, as I'm not looking for any specific code. I have a table on a classic asp page populated from an sql server. I've just set the table up so that each row is clickable and takes you to a page to edit the data in the row. My question is this: Would I be better off trying to use the recordset that populated the table or should I reconnect to the db and pull just the record I want edited.
As always; It Depends. It depends on what you need to edit about the record. It depends on How far apart your DB and site are from each other. It depends on which machine, if the DB and site are on separate machines, is more powerful.
That being said, you should make a new call for that specific record. The reason mainly being because of a specification you made in your question:
...and takes you to a page to edit the data in the row
You should not try to pass a record set between pages. There are a few reasons for this
On point 1 there are two ways to look at this. One is that you are trying to pass the entire record set across a page when you only need 1 record. There are few situations where another DB call would cost more than this. The other is you are only passing one record which would make me question your design. Why does this record set have every item related to a record. You are selecting way too much for just a result list. Or if the record is that small then Why do you need the new page. Why can you not just reveal an edit template for the item if it is that minimal.
On point 2 consider the following scenario. You are discussing with a coworker how you need to change a customer's record. You pull up this result set in an application but then nature calls and you step away from you desk. The coworker gets called by the customer and asked why the record is not updated yet. To placate the customer your coworker makes the changes. Now you are using an old record set and may overwrite additional changes your coworker made while you were away. This all happens because you never update the record set, you always just pass the old one from page to page.
On point 3 we can look back a point 1 a bit. let us say that you are passing 5 fields now. You decide though that you need a comments field to attach to one of your existing fields. do you intend to pass 2000 characters of that comment field to the next page? How about if each of the 5 need a comment field? Do you intend to pass 10,000 characters for a properly paged record set of 10? do you not do record set paging and need to pass 10,000 characters for a full 126 records.
There are more reasons too. Will you be able to keep your records secure passing them this way? Will this effect your user's experience because they have a crummy computer and cannot build that quick of a post request quickly? Generally it is better to only keep what you need and in most situations your result set should not have everything you need to edit.