Store inline HTML within variable in PHP

Question

I was wondering, mostly because I think I've seen it before somewhere, if it is possible to store HTML within a variable, something like the following (I know this makes no sense, it's just to clarify my question):

<? $var = ' ?>
text goes here
<? '; ?>

And then $var would equal text goes here

Answer 1

You could do that using output buffering. Have a look at the examples at ob_get_contents() and ob_start().

<? ob_start(); ?>

All kinds of stuff, maybe some <?= "php"; ?> etc.

<? $var = ob_get_contents(); ?>

Answer 2

You may be thinking of the Heredoc syntax:

<?php
$var = <<<EOD
text goes here
EOD;
?>