An application I am working on opens tables at the beginning and does not close the tables until the end. The application does not use private data sessions. The assumption throughout is that these tables are always open. Of course, like many apps, as it expands things accidentally get close, crashes happen, etc. etc. and tables are not always open.

Is it better in methods/programs to make sure the table is first open and if not open it or to generate an error and try to figure out why the table was closed in the first place and fix that problem?