Output string using php printf

Question

I'm trying to display a texts with functions on my page. Please find the code below. I'm not getting the output I want.

<?php $content = the_content(); ?>
<?php printf(__('Output : %1$s', 'theme'), $content); ?>

Which Outputs :

Foo
Output  :

I need my output to be like this :

Output  : Foo

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Answer from Kim Christensen :

<?php $content = get_the_content(); ?>
<?php printf(__('Output : %1$s', 'theme'), $content); ?>

Works perfectly :

Output : Foo

---

Answer from Pieter Goosen :

<?php $content = apply_filters( 'the_content', get_the_content() ); ?>
<?php printf(__('Output : %1$s', 'theme'), $content); ?>

It pushes my content below :

Output :
Foo

Answer 1

the_content() prints it output to screen. What you want is to return that output and assign a variable to it.

You should note, although get_the_content() do exactly what you want, it only returns unfiltered content, and not filtered content like the_content(). You should manually add those filters, which is real easy.

You can do the following

$content = apply_filters( 'the_content', get_the_content() );

EDIT

It seems the above approach pushes the content part to the next line when the filters are applied to get_the_content().

A work around here would be to concatenate Output : to get_the_content() and then applying the content filters to that

<?php $content = apply_filters( 'the_content', 'Output :' . get_the_content() ); ?>
<?php printf(__( '%1$s', 'theme'), $content); ?>

would give you what you need

Answer 2

You want to use get_the_content(), the_content() prints the content.

get_the_content() will be assigned to your variable.

Answer 3

Kim is correct.

get_the_content() displays your intended result.

<?php $content = get_the_content(); 
printf("Output: %1$s", $content); ?>

Answer 4

Another approach:

ob_start();
the_content();
$content = ob_get_clean();