Simple include problem

[Nolandis]

Hello, I have a simple issue with a code that uses includes. What I want to do is to include a bit of php code I made to my main pages so I don't have to edit each file that will contain the same included code. The problem with that included code is that contains variables that only the main files would know. Let me show you basically what I'm talking about.

 

mainfile1.php

<?php
$cat = "meow";
include "content.php";
?>

 

mainfile2.php

<?php
$cat = "mew";
include "content.php";
?>

 

(mainfile3.php and so on...)

 

content.php

echo '<center>My cat said '.$cat.' today!</center>';

 

I was expecting to see:

My cat said meow today!

and

My cat said mew today!

 

But when I loaded both pages it rendered like this:

My cat said '.$cat.' today!

 

HTML works properly but the variables are ignored and displayed as plain text. What I need to do so those variables don't get ignored?

 

Thanks.

[Errant_Shadow]

Just to make sure, on content.php, there are the <?PHP ?> tags?

 

<?php

echo '<center>My cat said '. $cat .' today!</center>';

?>

[Nolandis]

I thought it wasn't necessary as it was going to be included and I was thinking it would read it like <?php <?php ?> ?> but NO I was totally wrong, my bad.

You, sir, solved my two-hour headache in less than ten minutes. Thank you very much! 

[Errant_Shadow]

The worst problems tend to have the easiest fixes *nods*

 

Be sure to mark as solved and happy coding.