String value of the_title

Hi,

I am unable to correctly concatenate the string value of the_title and another string. The problem is in the order of the value of the post’s title, and it always “moves” to the beginning of the final string value. Just to give you an example:

<?php $foo = " First" . the_title() . " Third ";
  echo $foo ?>

Instead of $foo = ” First PostHeading Third “, $foo always returns as “PostHeadingFirst Third “.

I hope I make myself clear. Is there a string value of the_title() that I need to parse?

TIA,
Sonali