ob_get_contents

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

ob_get_contentsReturn the contents of the output buffer

Description

ob_get_contents(): string|false

Gets the contents of the output buffer without clearing it.

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

This will return the contents of the output buffer or false, if output buffering isn't active.

Examples

Example #1 A simple ob_get_contents() example

<?php

ob_start
();

echo
"Hello ";

$out1 = ob_get_contents();

echo
"World";

$out2 = ob_get_contents();

ob_end_clean();

var_dump($out1, $out2);
?>

The above example will output:

string(6) "Hello "
string(11) "Hello World"

See Also

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User Contributed Notes 2 notes

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10
mauroasprea+php at gmail dot com
14 years ago
This is an example of how the stack works:<?php//Level 0ob_start();echo "Hello ";//Level 1ob_start();echo "Hello World";$out2 = ob_get_contents();ob_end_clean();//Back to level 0echo "Galaxy";$out1 = ob_get_contents();ob_end_clean();//Just outputvar_dump($out1, $out2);?>
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8
Mark Clements
10 years ago
Note that, unlike PHP variables which make efficient use of memory, getting the contents of the output buffer results in a new copy of the buffer being made.  This can end up massively increasing the memory requirements of your script if your output is large.Example code:<?phpprint(memory_get_usage() . "<br>");ob_start();for ($i = 0; $i < 5000000; $i++)    print(" ");print(memory_get_usage() . "<br>");$foo = ob_get_contents();print(memory_get_usage() . "<br>");ob_end_flush();?>Output:  351664 535915210359256
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