Variable Verbage

[prince_mallow]

I would like to make a multi line variable, that is to say, I would like to imitate something an if statement can do

With an if statement you can do this:

<?php
if ($var == 1) { ?>
Html code here
can be as long
or as short as you like
blah blah blah more html
<?php } ?>

and that will work fine, what I would like to do is something similar with a variable so far I came up with this

<?php $var = ' ?>
HTML code here
<?php '; ?>

The problem with the above is that when you echo that statement, it will echo the "?>" as well. Is there a way around this???