how to get returned text from a php page

Question

very simple php question,

for example, demo.php just returns a text like this "hello".

how can i get this text from an another php page ?

UPDATE:

actually i meant page is outputting it like this "print 'hello';"

Answer 1

Does it return "hello", does it output hello or does it simply contains hello? All three scenarios are different problems.

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If it return "hello"; as such:

<?php
return "hello";

then you can easily grab its value by including the file and grabbing the return value:

<?php
$fileValue = include('secondFile.php');

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If it outputs hello as such:

<?php
echo "hello"; // or print "hello";

you must use output buffering to capture the result:

<?php
ob_start();
include('secondFile.php');
$fileValue = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

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If it contains hello as such:

hello

you can simply read the result:

<?php
$fileValue = file_get_contents('secondFile.txt');

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See Also:

• include() PHP Documentation Page
• Output Buffering PHP Documentation Section
• file_get_contents() PHP Documentation Page