Capturing the output buffer to re-use later

In this example, we have an array containing some data.

We capture the output buffer in $items_li_html and use it twice in the page.

<?php

// Start capturing the output
ob_start();

$items = ['Home', 'Blog', 'FAQ', 'Contact'];

foreach($items as $item):

// Note we're about to step "out of PHP land"
?>
  <li><?php echo $item ?></li>
<?php
// Back in PHP land
endforeach;

// $items_lists contains all the HTML captured by the output buffer
$items_li_html = ob_get_clean();
?>

<!-- Menu 1: We can now re-use that (multiple times if required) in our HTML. -->
<ul class="header-nav">
    <?php echo $items_li_html ?>
</ul>

<!-- Menu 2 -->
<ul class="footer-nav">
    <?php echo $items_li_html ?>
</ul>

Save the above code in a file output_buffer.php and run it via php output_buffer.php.

You should see the 2 list items we created above with the same list items we generated in PHP using the output buffer:

<!-- Menu 1: We can now re-use that (multiple times if required) in our HTML. -->
<ul class="header-nav">
  <li>Home</li>
  <li>Blog</li>
  <li>FAQ</li>
  <li>Contact</li>
</ul>

<!-- Menu 2 -->
<ul class="footer-nav">
  <li>Home</li>
  <li>Blog</li>
  <li>FAQ</li>
  <li>Contact</li>
</ul>

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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