Using Output from one Function and calling it into another

Question

I'm trying to get my head around a fairly simple concept in PHP but I'm pretty green.

I have a function..

function pa_insertPage($atts, $content = null) {
    // Default output if no pageid given
    $output = NULL;
    // extract atts and assign to array
    extract(shortcode_atts(array("page" => '2404' // Value for Course Descriptions page
    ), $atts));
    // if a page id is specified, then run query
    if (!empty($page)) {
        $pageContent = new WP_query();
        $pageContent->query(array('page_id' => $page));
        while ($pageContent->have_posts()) : $pageContent->the_post();
            // assign the content to $output
            $output = apply_filters( 'the_content', get_the_content() );
        endwhile;
    }
    return $output;
}

And I'd like to use the returned $output from this function in another function called naada_assess()

In my naada_assess function I've called $recClasses = pa_insertPage($output); but that doesn't seem to do the trick.

Answer 1

This isn't really a WordPress question... that said

$recClasses = pa_insertPage($output);

is incorrect. here you should be passing to insertPage whatever the arguments are. Then insertPage will return $output, making $recClasses the same value as $output.

    $recClasses = pa_insertPage('your attributes');
// $recClasses now equals $output;

Answer 2

If you have defined a shortcode like this:

 add_shortcode('myshortcode','pa_insertPage');

then you could try this inside your naada_assess() function:

$recClasses = do_shortcode('[myshortcode page="123"]');

as a way to retrieve the $output.