putting the result of PHP code into a string

I'm quite sure there is a simple solution to the problem bellow! I like to evaluate som PHP code, but I want the result to be putted into a string. example: $var = "Test1"; $code = "<td><?php echo $var1?></td>"; $html = someFunction($code); After this i want $html to contain "<td>Test1</td> I've checked the eval function, but it just evaluates the code and just outputs the result. I really wants the output into a string! regards Morten Gjetanger