assign variable after HTML

[pohopo]

Hi,

I have an include file that has a variable that I want to change from code after the include file. Is this possible? I have a short example below...

//start include file (header.inc)
<?
str_crumbs = "home";
echo str_crumbs;
?>
//end include file

//start main page
<?
include header.inc;
str_crumbs .= " > request";
?>
//end main page

TIA

[devinemke]

Originally posted by pohopo
Is this possible?

yes

[pohopo]

so, how would you do it?

[devinemke]

//start include file (header.inc) 
<? 
$str_crumbs = 'home';
echo $str_crumbs; 
?> 
//end include file 

//start main page 
<? 
include('header.inc');
$str_crumbs .= ' > request';
?> 
//end main page

[pohopo]

na

[pohopo]

It does not work. now if I did another "echo str_crumbs" then it will concatenate the extra text, but I want it to concatenate the first echo I did in the include file. hope that makes sense.

[devinemke]

Originally posted by pohopo
It does not work. now if I did another "echo str_crumbs" then it will concatenate the extra text, but I want it to concatenate the first echo I did in the include file. hope that makes sense.

no. it does not make sense. when you [man]include[/man] a file, the included file inheirits the variable scope of the parent file. so if you define $str_crumbs in header.inc it will be available in main.php after the include statement.

[pohopo]

I did a slight modification to the code so it will be clearer...

//start header.inc
<?
str_crumbs = "home";
echo str_crumbs;
?>
//end header.inc

//start index.php
<?
include header.inc;
str_crumbs .= " > request";
echo "<br>" . str_crumbs;
?>
//end index.php 

I want the output to be:
home > request
home > request

what it is doing instead is:
home
home > request

I know why it is doing the second, but I wanted to know if it was possible to make it so it would do my first output. I want to somehow buffer the values till all the code is processed then print it on the screen after.

[devinemke]

i still don't get it. you are doing following in this order:

1. creating a string variable
2. echoing that variable
3. adding more text to the variable
4. echoing that variable again

why would you want/expect the output from step #2 to be the same as step #4? the variable has changed in the interim.

[pohopo]

I want them to be the same because I have a value in a header that I want to change depending on include files that will be loaded after. so php would process the whole page first and then when it did the echos/prints it would print the last value of a variable. this is something I have done in other web languages and was not sure if could be done in PHP.

I started PHP this monday so I am still learning my limitations. I can do work arounds, but it is just extra code. thanks for the help though and not giving up on me!! I will do what I need another way.

[devinemke]

a bit heavy-handed but you could do:

<?
ob_start();

$var = 'this is some text';
echo 'this ouput has a placeholder where the var will go: [var]';

$var = 'this is some new changed text';
$output = str_replace('[var]', $var, ob_get_contents());

ob_clean();
echo $output;
ob_end_flush();
?>

[pohopo]

that does look a little heavy. my crumb creation will just need to be created all in the header. thanks for the help devinemke.