PHP - Convert Returned Value From wp-function to String

Question

I'm using Wordpress' CMS for my website, I want to display recent blog posts, but without the HTML tags which are within the post. I have tried the following, but to no avail.

$content = the_content();
$content = strval($content);
echo strip_tags($content, '<p><a>');

Which returns the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'the_content' (T_STRING) in C:\xampp\htdocs\wp\wp-content\themes\My-theme\index.php on line 25

Answer 1

the_content() will directly echo your content so you are getting the error. Try

$content = get_the_content(); //returns the content so your $content will have all the contents
$content = strval($content);
echo strip_tags($content, '<p><a>');