redirect command output into variable and standard output in ksh

Question

I have some shell command. I would like to write the output to the standard output and save it into variable as well. I'd like to solve it with one command. I have tried these things.

ls > $VAR          # redirects the output to file which name is stored in $VAR ls | tee -a $VAR   # writes to standard output as well as in file which name is stored in $VAR VAR=`ls`           # output into $VAR, but it is not sent to standard output VAR=`ls`;echo $VAR # ok, it works but these are two commands 

Any idea?

Answer 1

How about:

VAR=$(ls | tee /dev/tty) 

Answer 2

great answer from @Gary_Barker, but this isn't possible on all systems.

On our teamcity there isn't a char-console. And there is another little problem.

If I use

VAR=$(ls -1); echo $VAR

it isn't the same like ls -1

My solution works, if it doesn't matter, that the output comes from error pipe.

VAR=$(ls -1 | tee >&2)