PHP script inside of string?

Question

Is this possible?

What I am trying to accomplish:

Create a html template in the form of a string
Inside the string, add a script, something like include 'php/countries.php';
Echo entire string to html page

Everything but the 2nd step works. I would like to see a php file echo the question being asked, onto the html page, including an echo from another php file.

EXAMPLE

echo "<div id=\"first\"><?php include \'countries.php\'; ?></div>";

I have tried the above, as well as the below:

EXAMPLE

echo "<div id=\"first\">".include 'countries.php'."</div>";

Would this require eval?

Any and all help is appreciated.

The include function returns a boolean not a string. You should create a countries() function that returns the information you're looking for and just call the function accordingly. — rfoo
– rfoo, Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 18:50
echo "<div id=\"first\">"; include 'countries.php'; echo "</div>"; — Mike
– Mike, Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 18:51
@Mike So this works perfectly. However, is there any hidden issues to breaking up the echos like this? — vulpcod3z
– vulpcod3z, Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 18:57
@Ricky No, there isn't. It just goes from one statement to 3 separate statements. — Mike
– Mike, Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 18:58

emsoff · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-09 18:59:19Z

2

Seems a bit silly, but you could do the following:

echo "<div id=\"first\">" . file_get_contents('countries.php') . "</div>";

Or...

echo "<div id=\"first\">";
include "countries.php";
echo "</div>";

Or...

$externalfile = compileexternal('countries.php');
function compileexternal($file) {
    ob_start();
    require $file;
    return ob_get_clean();
}

echo "<div id=\"first\">" . $externalfile . "</div>";

If none of these are what you need, please update the question. There are a dozen ways.

edited Oct 9, 2014 at 18:59

answered Oct 9, 2014 at 18:52

emsoff

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5 Comments

Mike Over a year ago

That's probably not what is wanted considering countries.php is a PHP file and could contain server-side code.

vulpcod3z Over a year ago

I do like this method, although @Mike was right, countries.php DOES contain more code.

Mike Over a year ago

@Ricky See my comment in your question then.

vulpcod3z Over a year ago

Thanks for the third option. I've never seen this used. Will be looking into this!

rfoo Over a year ago

Does ob_end_clean(); automatically happen once the scope of the function is closed?

ehwas · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-09 18:59:52Z

0

You can use

eval()

But it is not a good practice.

answered Oct 9, 2014 at 18:59

ehwas

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2 Comments

vulpcod3z Over a year ago

Not to extend this conversation, but I actually do use eval in one particular case. It's better not to use it but if you need to, just separate it from user input.

ehwas Over a year ago

@Mike you are probably confusing it with exec() or system(). php.net/manual/bg/function.eval.php bg2.php.net/manual/en/function.system.php eval parses a string just as an included/required filed gets parsed. It is not a good practice(unlike require/include) because a string variable can hold anything (deppends really, but you know)

ʰᵈˑ · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-09 19:09:31Z

0

You can use a regular expression.

For example, your string could be;

<div id="first">{{countries.php}}</div>

You'd then do;

$string = "<div id='first'>{{test2.php}}</div>";

echo preg_replace_callback("/(\{\{.+\}\})/", function($matches) {
   include_once( str_replace(array("{", "}"), "", $matches[0]));
}, $string);

Check the file exists if( file_exists() )
Check the file can be included (we don't want to include ../../../../../etc/passwd

answered Oct 9, 2014 at 19:09

ʰᵈˑ

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