get return from echo

I'm working with some functions that echo output. But I need their return so I can use them in PHP.

This works (seemingly without a hitch) but I wonder, is there a better way?

    function getEcho( $function ) {
        $getEcho = '';
        ob_start();
        $function;
        $getEcho = ob_get_clean();
        return $getEcho;
    }

Example:

    //some echo function
    function myEcho() {
        echo '1';
    }

    //use getEcho to store echo as variable
    $myvar = getEcho(myEcho());      // '1'

no, the only way i can think of to "catch" echo-statements it to use output-buffering like you already do. i'm using a very similar function in my code:

function return_echo($func) {
    ob_start();
    $func;
    return ob_get_clean();
}

it's just 2 lines shorter and does exactly the same.