Re-engineering print()

Hi, I'm involved in a conundrum that is a little difficult to explain with plain English. Perhaps some PHP code will help you understand what I am attempting: #Option 1: code I wish worked $s = include("phpcode.php"); #Option 2: also code I wish worked $s = sprintf("%s", include('template.php')); Basically, I'm wondering if there is a way to redirect print and echo output from PHP to a variable instead of directly to a browser or file stream. What I'm trying to do is create code that can generate an HTML page to a variable that I can manipulate and then later store in a database. Obviously, the "real" way to do this is to not use print() statements at all, but simply build a variable as follows: $output .= "<html> yadda yadda yadda"; $output .= sprintf("More html and function output %s", function()); until the $output contains the entire file. The reason I don't want to do this is that it will require rewriting all my PHP file templates. Also, I'm simply obsessed with the problem now. I even went as far as using eval() on the reading of an fopen(template.php) of the PHP template, but even then I couldn't assign the output to a variable. Anyone want to kill themselves trying? My head hurts. Sincerely, Kristofer -- http://www.brokenhill.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The only real ideas are the ideas of the shipwrecked" --Ortega y Gassett ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~