include - How to I inject only certain parts of PHP page using PHP

Question

I know I can include other files using PHP

<?php include("file.php"); ?>

Now my question is how do I inject only certain parts of "file.php"?

Lets say I have some header code and some footer code within file.php. How do I organize file.php with the correct separated section, and how do only include certain sections of the file.php (file.php?footer or something like that?)

Answer 1

The easiest (and usual) way is to simply make separate header.php and footer.php files, and access them where you need them. There's no direct support for only loading parts of a file.

Edit (to respond to your comment on the other answer about using separate functions): Let's say your file.php looks like this:

<?php

function header() { ?>
   header content goes here
<?php }

function footer() { ?>
    footer content goes here
<?php }

?>

Then in the page you're calling it into, you can use <?php header() ?> and <?php footer() ?> to produce the content where you want it.