function in a string

Anon

I want to put a function in a string:

say I defined function mirror_display()

how would I put that into a string with the output of the function?

$hello = "mirror_display()";

lets say mirror_display() gets data from a mysql database and prints out several rows of <tr><td></td></tr>.

Anon

You want the output of mirror_display() to go into a string? Like $hello=mirror_display(); does?

Anon

So if mirror_display() is producing output you want captured into a variable instead of being sent to the browser, and you don't want to rewrite mirror_display() so that it builds a string instead of producing output, what you want to do is buffer your output.

ob_start();
mirror_display();
$mirror_out=ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

And see the value of $mirror_out.

Anon

Is there a better method? I just wish to get the output from the function into the $hello = "" string.

Your method worked like a charm

Anon

Well, that's as simple as it gets really:

"Stop sending stuff to the browser"
"Do stuff"
"Send stuff here"
"Start sending stuff to the browser again"

Anon

Ok thanks...

jesus_hairdo

what you could do is edit the function to return a variable instead of printing it.

i usually use something like:

function test()
{
$output = "Hello";
$output .= " This will be";
$output .=" set as the return value";
$output .= " of this function";
return $output;
}

so now,

$var = test();
print $var;

would print ,

Hello This will be set as the return value of this function

to the browser.