PHP: How can I put HTML Code with PHP Code within into a PHP Variable?

Question

I have a question about " and ' in PHP. I have to put a complete <li> element into a PHP variable but this doesn't work, the output is completely false...

    $list = 
"
    <li class=\"<?php if($info[1] < 700) {echo \"half\";} else {echo \"full\";} ?>\">

        <div class=\"onet-display\">

        <?php if ($image = $post->get('image.src')): ?>
            <a class=\"onet-display-block\" href=\"<?= $view->url('@blog/id', ['id' => $post->id]) ?>\"><img class=\"onet-thumb\" src=\"<?= $image ?>\" alt=\"<?= $post->get('image.alt') ?>\"></a>
        <?php endif ?>

        <h1 class=\"onet-thumb-title\"><a href=\"<?= $view->url('@blog/id', ['id' => $post->id]) ?>\"><?= $post->title ?></a></h1>
        <div class=\"uk-margin\"><?= $post->excerpt ?: $post->content ?></div>

        </div>

    </li>
";

Is it because there is PHP Content in the HTML Code? How can I solve this?

Can someone help me and explain why this doesn't work?

Instead try using heredoc and nowdoc syntaxes. It would be better for such situations — Thamilhan
– Thamilhan, Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 8:50
You chose the wrong approach. Storing such content does not make much sense. You do not want such content inside a variable, since there you cannot do anything with it. So the question is: why did you put it there? What were you trying to do? If you told us, then we would be able to help and point out better approaches. — arkascha
– arkascha, Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 8:56

Ruslan Osmanov · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-03 09:20:17Z

`<?php ... <?php`

Since your string contains PHP tags, I suppose you expect them to be evaluated. The opening PHP tag within another PHP tag is interpreted as a part of the PHP code. For example, the following outputs <?php echo time();:

<?php echo "<?php echo time();";

There are several ways to build a PHP string from PHP expressions.

Concatenation

You can create functions returning strings and concatenate the calls to them with other strings:

function some_function() {
  return time();
}

$html = "<li " . some_function() . ">";

or use sprintf:

$html = sprintf('<li %s>', some_function());

eval

Another way is to use eval, but I wouldn't recommend it as it allows execution of arbitrary PHP code and may cause unexpected behavior.

Output Buffering

If you are running PHP as a template engine, you can use the output control functions, e.g.:

<?php ob_start(); ?>

<li data-time="<?= time() ?>"> ...</li>

<?php
$html = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
echo $html;

Output

<li data-time="1483433793"> ...</li>

Here Document Syntax

If, however, the string is supposed to be assigned as is, use the here document syntax:

$html = <<<'HTML'
<li data-time="{$variable_will_NOT_be_parsed}">...</li>
HTML;

or

$html = <<<HTML
<li data-time="{$variable_WILL_be_parsed}">...</li>
HTML;

Paolo · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-03 09:06:17Z

You want to store some html into a variable.

Your source should (if not yet) start with

<?php

Then you start building the contents of $list.

Starting from your code the nearest fix is to build $list by appending strings:

<?php
$list = "<li class=";

if($info[1] < 700)
{
    $list .= "\"half\"";  // RESULT: <li class="half"
}
else
{
    $list .= "\"full\"";  // RESULT: <li class="full"
}

// ...and so on...

Now a couple things to note:

$list .= "... is a short form of $list = $list . "...

Where the . dot operator joins two strings.

Second thing you may make code easier to read by mixing single and double quotes:

Use double quotes in PHP and single quotes in the generated HTML:

<?php
$list = "<li class=";

if($info[1] < 700)
{
    $list .= "'half'";  // RESULT: <li class='half'
}
else
{
    $list .= "'full'";    // RESULT: <li class='full'
}

// ...and so on...

This way you don't need to escape every double quote

c.Bauer · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-03 09:07:11Z

0

i think you have to work like this

$test = "PHP Text";

$list = "<strong>here ist Html</strong>" . $test . "<br />";  
echo $list;

answered Jan 3, 2017 at 9:07

c.Bauer

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PHP: How can I put HTML Code with PHP Code within into a PHP Variable?

3 Answers 3

`<?php ... <?php`

Concatenation

eval

Output Buffering

Here Document Syntax

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Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

<?php ... <?php

Concatenation

eval

Output Buffering

Here Document Syntax

Comments

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