Destruct

Destruct is the act or process of destruction, or the thing that destroys. The term comes from Latin destruere, de- “un-” + struere “to build,” and in ordinary usage it covers the breaking down, ruin, or dismantling of objects, structures, or systems, as well as more figurative forms of ruin.

In computing, destruct is most closely associated with destructors—special routines that release resources when an object is destroyed. A destructor performs cleanup tasks such as freeing memory, closing files, or releasing handles. The exact implementation and semantics vary by language.

Examples include:

- C++, where a destructor is a member function named with a tilde, ~ClassName(), and is called automatically when an object’s lifetime ends.

- PHP, which defines a __destruct magic method that runs when the object is about to be destroyed.

- Python, which uses a destructor-like method __del__, though resource management is typically handled with explicit cleanup or context managers rather than relying on destructors.

Destruct can also refer more generally to operations that dismantle or free a data structure or resource, sometimes as part of a library’s API. Such destructive operations modify the input or release its resources, in contrast with non-destructive methods that preserve the original data.

Because destruction can be irreversible, many systems emphasize safe resource management through patterns such as deterministic cleanup, reference counting, or automatic garbage collection, to reduce the risk of leaks or resource contention.