Include wouldn't work if he wanted to get the output as opposed to the actual php file's content. The question isn't clear as to which it is.

If you want the actual file contents, use include. If you want the output as would be seen in a browser querying the script, well, you just need a more intelligent way of producing output. Try to break down how the script works out what to produce at the end, and make sure that the output is ultimately produced by a single function.

Using an OO approach is a good way to be doing this from the start, but if you have a more "procedural" approach, it's not hard to move your logic into functions instead of them being top level.

Not sure what's the difference (maybe I just misunderstand what you want). Do you want to show the contents of the PHP file before it's parsed (the unprocessed source code) or the output that the file gives after it's parsed (the result)?

Calling the file straight to the URL would result in parsed, processed code, wouldn't it? I thought that's what you wanted, which is why I suggested include (wouldn't that show the output of the processed PHP file?)

Include pulls the php code, not the output, into the script.

This is a really basic example of what I'm getting at. Let's say you have a script called show_table.php. show_table.php is a page that contains a table with data in it. The table is an object that is manipulated by other scripts, as it is connected to a database. The table might, therefore, have its own class, contained in MyTable.php:

<?php
class MyTable
{
	 var $output;	 // output string

	 function ConstructTable()
	 {
	 	 $this->output = "<table><tr><th>Header One</th><th>Header Two</th></tr><tr><td>Column One</td><td>Column Two</td></tr></table>";
	 }

	 function Output()
	 {
	 	 return $this->output;
	 }
}
?>

show_table.php, when displaying the table, will also take advantage of a header and footer page. If the header and footer are always the same, then their codes can be placed in separate files (header.php and footer.php) and simply included, since no processing needs to take place. show_table.php therefore probably looks like this:

<?php
include( "header.php" );
include( "MyTable.php" );
$myTable = new MyTable();
$myTable->ConstructTable();
echo $myTable->Output();
include( "footer.php" );
?>

If you then needed to include the same table in any other page, you can now include it in exactly the same way. In the same vein, the MyTable class could have other functions than ConstructTable and Output (maybe editing, deleting, etc) that show_table.php doesn't use, but a new php file called screw_with_data.php does. Do you see?

Compartmentalise your code so it is reusable. The problem you are having stems from your code's structure.

include can also have a return result and be assigned to a variable.

included_file.php

<?php
$str = "Hello, world";
return $str;

your_script.php

<?php

$output = my_inc_func();
print $output;  // prints "Hello, world"

function my_inc_func(){
    $str = include( "included_file.php" );
    return $str;
}