What is the correct way to programmatically delete a joomla user and their data?

Question

I want to remove a set of users by id from a Joomla 3.x database. I am trying to figure out from the documentation if this is possible without having to write my own SQL for each database table.

Something like the following pseudo code:

 delete from #_users where ( `lastvisitDate` < NOW() - INTERVAL 1 MONTH  ) AND ( #__user_usergroup_map.group_id = 18 );
 delete from #_user_usergroup_map where user_id not in (select id from #_users);
 delete from #_user_profiles where user_id not in (select id from #_users);

I am familiar with the querybuilder see: https://docs.joomla.org/Inserting,_Updating_and_Removing_data_using_JDatabase/en

But if there is already code in the framework that deletes user's with details then it would be my preference not to reinvent the wheel.

The documentations has this : https://api.joomla.org/cms-3/classes/Joomla.CMS.User.User.html but it seems that no parameters are passed to user->delete?

I'm assuming this can be done as it is possible to tick boxes in the administrator back end user list and delete multiple users.

I have been working with Joomla for a few years (since 1.5) but truth be told I have always struggled with the API documentation.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The documentations has this : https://api.joomla.org/cms-3/classes/Joomla.CMS.User.User.html but it seems that no parameters are passed to user->delete?

That's correct. This method works on the user instance.

use Joomla\CMS\User\User;

// Get user with ID 1.
$userId = 1;
$user   = User::getInstance($userId);

// Delete the user.
if (!$user->delete())
{
    // Error occurred.
}
else
{
    // User with ID 1 deleted.
}

Using this method triggers onUserBeforeDelete and onUserAfterDelete events so plugins can delete related user data.