imagedestroy() is an inbuilt PHP function that is used to destroy an image and free any memory associated with the image.
Syntax
bool imagedestroy(resource $image)
Parameters
imagedestroy() takes only one parameter, $image. It holds the name of an image.
Return Values
imagedestroy() returns true on success and failure on false.
Example 1 − Destroying an image after loading it.
<?php // Load the png image from the local drive folder $img = imagecreatefrompng('C:\xampp\htdocs\Images\img32.png'); // Crop the image $cropped = imagecropauto($img, IMG_CROP_BLACK); // Convert it to a png file imagepng($cropped); // It will destroy the cropped image to free/deallocate the memory. imagedestroy($cropped); ?>
Output
Note − By using imagedestroy() function, we have destroyed the $cropped variable and therefore, it can no longer be accessed.
Explanation − In Example1, imagecreatefrompng() loads an image from the local drive folder and crops a part of the image from the given image using imagecropauto() function. After cropping, imagedestroy() function is used to destroy the image. We cannot access the image or the $cropped variable after destroying the image.
Example 2
<?php // create a 50 x 50 image $img = imagecreatetruecolor(50, 50); // frees image from memory imagedestroy($img); ?>
Note − In the above PHP code, a 50×50 image is created using the imagecreatetruecolor() function. After creating the image, imagedestroy() function is used to free or deallocate the used memory.