PHP Forum

**Archer0537** · 07-12-2010, 10:45 AM

I have a question about performance. I want to capture a whole page as a variable and echo it back to the browser, but I'm not sure that it's the best idea. It seems to me like I'd only be making one call to the PHP interrupter, instead of over and over with a marked up page. Does anyone have any experience with this that can offer some advice?

Just for illustration:
<?php
$output = "<html><head><title>This is a test</title></head><body>This page is just a test";
$output.= call_some_function();
$output.= do_other_stuff();
$output.= "</body></html>";
echo $output;
?>

As opposed to :
<html>
<head>
<title>This is a test</title>
</head>
<body>
This page is just a test
<?php call_some_function(); ?>
<?php do_other_stuff(); ?>
</body>
</html>

**NullPointer** · 07-12-2010, 10:57 AM

You can just use an output buffer to capture any output and store it in a variable:

PHP Code:


			
<?php

ob_start();

?>

<html>

<head>

<title>This is a test</title>

</head>

<body>

This page is just a test

<?php call_some_function(); ?>

<?php do_other_stuff(); ?>

</body>

</html>

<?php

$output = ob_get_clean();

echo $output;

?>

The performance difference between capturing the output and storing it, rather than outputting it immediately should be negligible.