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PHP - imap_expunge() Function

PHP−IMAP functions helps you to access email accounts, IMAP stands for Internet Mail Access Protocol using these functions you can also work with NNTP, POP3 protocols and local mailbox access methods.

You can mark the mails/messages of a specific mailbox for deletion using either of the imap_delete(), imap_mail_move(), or imap_setflag_full() functions.

The imap_expunge() function accepts a resource value representing an IMAP stream as a parameter and, removes all the messages marked for deletion.

Syntax

imap_expunge($imap_stream);

Parameters

Sr.No Parameter & Description
1

imap_stream (Mandatory)

This is a string value representing an IMAP stream, return value of the imap_open() function.

Return Values

This function returns a Boolean TRUE.

PHP Version

This function was first introduced in PHP Version 4 and works in all the later versions.

Example

Following example demonstrates the usage of the imap_delete() function −

<html>
   <body>
      <?php
         //Establishing connection
         $url = "{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX";
         $id = "tutorialspoint.test@gmail.com";
         $pwd = "cohondob_123";
         $imap = imap_open($url, $id, $pwd);
         print("Connection established...."."<br>");
		 		 
         //Marking message for deletion
         $res = imap_delete($imap, 5);
         if($res){
            print("Message marked for deletion"."<br>");
         }		 
         //Deleting messages
         $res = imap_expunge($imap);	 	
         if($res){
            print("Message deleted");
         }		 		 
         //Closing the connection
         imap_close($imap);   
      ?>
   </body>
</html>

Output

This will generate the following output −

Connection established....
Message marked for deletion
Message deleted

Example

Following is another example of the above function −

<html>
   <body>
      <?php
         //Establishing connection
         $url = "{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX";
         $id = "tutorialspoint.test@gmail.com";
         $pwd = "cohondob_123";
         $imap = imap_open($url, $id, $pwd);
         print("Connection established...."."<br>");
         print("Contents  of inbox: "."<br>");
         $emailData = imap_search($imap, '');
         foreach ($emailData as $msg) {
            $msg = imap_fetchbody($imap, $msg, "1");
            print(quoted_printable_decode($msg)."<br>");                
         }    
         //Marking message for deletion
         imap_delete($imap, 5);
         
         //Deleting messages
         imap_expunge($imap);	 		 
		 
         print("Contents of inbox after deletion: "."<br>");
         $emailData = imap_search($imap, '');
         foreach ($emailData as $msg) {
            $msg = imap_fetchbody($imap, $msg, "1");
            print(quoted_printable_decode($msg)."<br>");                
         }    
		 
         //Closing the connection
         imap_close($imap);   
      ?>
   </body>
</html>

Output

This will generate the following output −

Connection established....
Contents of inbox:
#sample_mail1
#sample_mail2
#sample_mail3
#sample_mail4
#sample_mail5
Contents of inbox after deletion:
#sample_mail1
#sample_mail2
#sample_mail3
#sample_mail4
php_function_reference.htm
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