Load a php file to get variable without loading the html? [closed]

I want to get a variable from a php file. I’ve read, that you can use include 'mypage.php'; and then use the variable. But if I do that it loads the visual part from the other file too (html and css from <style> tag).

Other methods are also apreciated.

Kind regards.

I have the var $screen_name in file twitter/index.php and want to have it in create.php

Tried:

include 'twitter/index.php';
echo $screen_name;

Answer

If you include the PHP file, it will also do the output. But you can suppress it with output buffering.

ob_start();
include './mypage.php';
ob_end_clean();

echo $varFromMypage;