Question: I have this code for example:

```
ob_start();
echo "hello there";
$output = ob_get_contents();
return $output;

```

When I run it, I get back:

```
hello there

```

But how can I get back 

```
echo "hello there";

```

Is there a way to do this easily?

Answer: 
To output arbitrary text as-is you can close the PHP script and then reopen it. Anything between the closing and opening tags is output as-is

```
ob_start();
?>echo "hello there";
<?php
$output = ob_get_contents();
return $output;

```
*By representing it as a string*:

```
ob_start();
$str = <<<STR
echo "hello there";
STR;
echo $str;
$output = ob_get_contents();
return $output;

```