How does PHP handle memory management when using references?

When using references in PHP, it's important to be mindful of memory management to avoid memory leaks. PHP handles memory management by automatically garbage collecting unreferenced variables, but when using references, it's possible to create circular references that prevent garbage collection. To solve this issue, make sure to unset references when they are no longer needed. 

// Example of unsetting references to properly handle memory management
$var1 = 'Hello';
$var2 = &$var1;

unset($var2); // Unset the reference to free up memory

Keywords

PHP memory management references garbage collection memory allocation

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