PHP, Eval code result in a variable

Question

I am using eval to execute php code that is coming from a database. The code is for meta tags and page title. One example looks like this (this is stored in a table):

$name . " test page title |".SiteSettings::getSiteNameAlternate();

And then in the controller I do this ($seo is an object that has the meta_title, and that element has the exact string from the db):

$pageTitle = isset($seo->meta_title) ? @eval("echo $seo->meta_title") : null;

I am using Larevel framework and I pass that page title to the blade template, and this works. The blade code

<title>{{ isset($page_title) ? $page_title : SiteSettings::defaultPageTitle() }}</title>

The issue is because the echo in the eval I get the page title on top of the page also.

I tried using print (dumb I know) and printf. Did not work. Any idea how to put the value of that eval in a variable without output on the screen?

Answer 1

$pageTitle = isset($seo->meta_title) ? @eval("return $seo->meta_title;") : null;

it will assign $seo->meta_title to $pageTitle if $seo->meta_title is set, and null otherwise.

Answer 2

A good way to store results is with ob_start, ob_get_contents and ob_end_clean

/*start buffering;*/
ob_start();

eval(echo isset($seo->meta_title) ? $seo->meta_title : "");

/* now catch the Buffer of the eval */

$pageTitle = ob_get_contents();

/* pageTitle contains now the value of the buffered echo */

/* stop buffering; */

ob_end_clean();

now use the Controller as you wanted