Curl showing but not returning data - php

Question

I'm trying to write a simple curl function that queries the freegeoip.net site with the IP address of a site visitor. This is usually done by typing "https://freegeoip.net/csv/{IP Address}" in the browser address line. The site then processes the request and returns a csv file that can be opened or saved. I'm trying to access the csv data directly so that I can parse and use it. This is the code that I am using:
<?php
$ip=$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
$geturl = "http://freegeoip.net/csv/".$ip;
$data = curl_get_contents($geturl);
echo ("<br>Data = '".$data."'<br>");
function curl_get_contents($url)
{
$ch = curl_init($url);
if($ch)
{
$tmp = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $tmp;
}
else
{
echo "Curl not loaded!<br>";
}
}
?>
This is what I am getting back:
...,US,United States,ST,State,City,?????,America/New_York,.*****,-.****,***
Data = '1'
As you can see, my function is accessing and showing the csv data but not returning it to the $data variable. Apparently, the data is being shown when the "curl_exec($ch);" command is being executed. I want to parse and use the returned data but can't until the data is returned. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The documentation of curl_exec() says:
Return Values
Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure. However, if the CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER option is set, it will return the result on success, FALSE on failure.
What it doesn't say is explained in the documentation page of curl_setopt(), on the CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER option:
Option: CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER
Set value to: TRUE to return the transfer as a string of the return value of curl_exec() instead of outputting it out directly.
That is, by default, curl_exec() outputs the body of the response it gets. In order to make it return the value and not output it, you have to use curl_setopt():
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_exec($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

Answer 2

you need to add following line before curl_exec other wise the result will output instead of returning it to $tmp variable.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

Answer 3

You aren't telling Curl that you want the data to be returned rather than output:
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, True);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://freegeoip.net/csv/".$ip);
$csv=curl_exec($ch);
But this is rather verbose when, depending on your config, you can:
$csv=file_get_contents("http://freegeoip.net/csv/".$ip);