How can I clear the memory while running a long PHP script? tried unset()

Question

My script imports an excel file into a product database to update quantities new products etc.... I am having memory issue and I have tried raising the memory limit to the max(800MB+). I have tried unsetting the variables in order to release the memory between the loops but I still run out of memory. I have tried setting the timeout to infinite but its definitely a memory issue. Error msg from log file: Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 851443712 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 71 bytes) None of the script is contained in a function. If I create the main for loop inside a function and repeatedly call that function will that help garbage collection and clear up memory? Any help or guidance will be appreciated. Import Script: ``` error_reporting( E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE ); ini_set('memory_limit', '812M'); set_time_limit(0); /* Config Start */ define('BasePath', '/home/xxxxx/public_html'); define('CfgMagentoPath', BasePath); define('CfgCategoryMapDBxls', BasePath."/xxxx/Shdddddd.xls"); de…

Accepted Answer

Use functions. Use `$var = null;` instead of `unset($var);`. Unset simply kills the variable reference.

As mentioned on this comment:

When you are using unset, the memory will only be freed whenever garbage collector decides, but when you are setting a variable to a different value (null in this case), then you might get some memory freed of course with the cost of CPU.

How can I clear the memory while running a long PHP script? tried unset()

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