Mysteries of the Include function

[stephdumais]

Hi,
I've been experiencing some strange problems handling a url generated variable with an included file. Here's what it all comes down to:

index.php:
<?php
include "content.php";
?>

content.php:
<?php
print $variable;
?>

So if I call "http://www.website.com/index.php?variable=foo", the page returned will print out "foo"

However! If in index.php I use the full path for the include:
<?php
include "http://www.website.com/content.php";
?>

The same URL will not get the returned page to print out the variable's value! Why is this? Does it have something to do with configuration?

If this was all there is to my problem, I would simply avoid using the full path, but for some reason, in the actual code I'm using, the main function of my "content.php" page will only work if I use a full path for the include function. I hope this might provide a clue...

Can anyone help? Is this clear?
Thanks in advance.

[Mordecai]

Because you are retrieving a file via HTTP, it is already parsed by PHP--therefore, the variable has already been echoed. Since it had no value, nothing was echoed.
You can't get code off of someone else's page--it's going to output what the script is meant to output, and then send.

[stephdumais]

Actually, it's not someone else's page, it's my own. That's why I pointed out that using the include with a relative path worked.

But thanks, that did resolve the mystery as to why it didnt work. However, I'm still stuck with the fact that some of my other functions only seem to work when I call the include with a full path. I'm guessing it's because when I use the full path, the result is from the executed functions. That's where I have to tinker.

[Mordecai]

I just used "someone else's" as a reference to any other page, but you get the point.