php include inside .tpl.php template file I have 2 template files where I want to use a common piece of template code. Is it ok to do an include of the chunk of template code I want to use?

Example model.tpl.php:

include('/path/to/template.php.tpl');
&lt;!-- Other Template Code --&gt;
Its better to modify the shared template inside hook_theme and use Drupal theme engine:

&lt;?php print theme('your_shared_template_file', $args); ?&gt;