Question

I use PHP’s EOF string to format HTML content without the hassle of having to escape quotes etc. How can I use the function inside this string?

<?php
    $str = <<<EOF
    <p>Hello</p>
    <p><?= _("World"); ?></p>
EOF;
    echo $str;
?>

Answer 1

As far as I can see in the manual, it is not possible to call functions inside HEREDOC strings. A cumbersome way would be to prepare the words beforehand:

<?php

    $world = _("World");

    $str = <<<EOF
    <p>Hello</p>
    <p>$world</p>
EOF;
    echo $str;
?>

a workaround idea that comes to mind is building a class with a magic getter method.

You would declare a class like this:

class Translator
{
 public function __get($name) {
  return _($name); // Does the gettext lookup
  }
 }

Initialize an object of the class at some point:

  $translate = new Translator();

You can then use the following syntax to do a gettext lookup inside a HEREDOC block:

    $str = <<<EOF
    <p>Hello</p>
    <p>{$translate->World}</p>
EOF;
    echo $str;
?>

$translate->World will automatically be translated to the gettext lookup thanks to the magic getter method.

To use this method for words with spaces or special characters (e.g. a gettext entry named Hello World!!!!!!, you will have to use the following notation:

 $translate->{"Hello World!!!!!!"}

This is all untested but should work.

Update: As @mario found out, it is possible to call functions from HEREDOC strings after all. I think using getters like this is a sleek solution, but using a direct function call may be easier. See the comments on how to do this.