using/exporting php code in templates

[derfy]

Ok, so how do I do that? I've got the template set up, all the code is being assigned to a variable...but when I type that variable into the template, nothing happens. I get the feeling I'm missing something trival here...

Here's a portion of the template($output is the var assigned to be the output):

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr>
	<td class="tcat">Title</td>
</tr>
<tr>
	$output
</tr>
</table>