PHP Memory Management

🚀 PHP Memory Management – Optimize Performance

PHP automatically manages memory, but inefficient coding can lead to memory leaks and high RAM usage. Let’s explore how PHP handles memory and how to optimize it! ⚡

📌 How PHP Manages Memory?

• ✅ Memory Allocation – PHP assigns memory dynamically.
• ✅ Garbage Collection – PHP automatically removes unused variables.
• ✅ Reference Counting – PHP tracks how many times a variable is used.

🔹 1. Checking PHP Memory Usage

Use memory_get_usage() to check how much memory your script is using.

<?php
echo "Memory Used: " . memory_get_usage() . " bytes";
?>

🔹 2. Memory Limit in PHP

PHP has a default memory limit. You can check it with:

<?php
echo "Memory Limit: " . ini_get("memory_limit");
?>

To increase it, modify your php.ini file:

memory_limit = 256M

🔹 3. PHP Garbage Collection

PHP has a garbage collector that automatically frees unused memory.

📝 Manually Running Garbage Collection

You can force garbage collection using gc_collect_cycles().

<?php
$data = range(1, 100000);
unset($data);
gc_collect_cycles(); // Free unused memory
echo "Garbage Collection Done!";
?>

🔹 4. Avoiding Memory Leaks

Use these best practices to avoid memory issues:

• ✅ Use unset() to remove large variables.
• ✅ Free unused resources (like database connections).
• ✅ Use generators instead of loading large datasets.

📝 Example: Using Generators Instead of Large Arrays

Instead of loading large data into an array, use a generator.

<?php
function getNumbers() {
    for ($i = 1; $i <= 1000000; $i++) {
        yield $i;
    }
}

foreach (getNumbers() as $number) {
    echo $number . "<br>";
}
?>

🎯 Summary

• ✅ Check memory usage with memory_get_usage().
• ✅ Increase memory limit in php.ini if needed.
• ✅ Use garbage collection to free up memory.
• ✅ Optimize code with generators & efficient data handling.

🚀 Next Steps

Try these techniques in your PHP scripts to optimize performance and reduce memory usage! 🎉