title: Calling unset() in PHP script
body: <p>Coming from a C/C++ background, I am used to doing my own garbage collection - i.e. freeing resources after using them (i.e. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAII" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RAII</a> in C++ land).</p>
  
  <p>I find myself unsetting (mostly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-relational_mapping" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ORM</a>) variables after using them. Are there any benefits of this habit?</p>
  
  <p>I remeber reading somewhere a while back, that unsetting variables marks them for deletion for the attention of PHP's GC - which can help resource usage on the server side - true or false?</p>
  
  <p><strong>[Edit]</strong></p>
  
  <p>I forgot to mention, I am using PHP 5.3, and also most of the unset() calls I make are in a loop where I am processing several 'heavy' ORM variables</p>