PHP: return value from function and echo it directly?

Question

this might be a stupid question but …

php

function get_info() {
    $something = "test";
    return $something;
}

html

<div class="test"><?php echo get_info(); ?></div>

Is there a way to make the function automatically "echo" or "print" the returned statement? Like I wanna do this … 

<div class="test"><?php get_info(); ?></div>

… without the "echo" in it?

Any ideas on that? Thank you in advance!

Solution 1

You can use the special tags:

<?= get_info(); ?>

Or, of course, you can have your function echo the value:

function get_info() {
    $something = "test";
    echo $something;
}

Solution 2

Why return when you can echo if you need to?

function 
get_info() {
    $something = "test";
    echo $something;
}

Solution 3

Why not wrap it?

function echo_get_info() {
  echo get_info();
}

and

<div class="test"><?php echo_get_info(); ?></div>

Solution 4

Have the function echo the value out itself.

function get_info() {
    $something = "test";
    echo $something;
    return $something;
}

Solution 5

One visit to echo's Manual page would have yielded you the answer, which is indeed what the previous answers mention: the shortcut syntax.

Be very careful though, if short_open_tag is disabled in php.ini, shortcutting echo's won't work, and your code will be output in the HTML. (e.g. when you move your code to a different server which has a different configuration).

For the reduced portability of your code I'd advise against using it.

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Comments

[Jay K]

For the record, as of php 5.4, "<?= is now always available, regardless of the short_open_tag php.ini option." See us1.php.net/manual/en/migration54.new-features.php

[Sébastien REMY]

May be he don't want to echo each time he use this function.

[Asef Hossini]

Maybe want to echo the returned value in some other function.