Php/html auto add br tags in a textarea

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I have a text area in a form this goes into a php script that outputs the text into a text file

How can i make line breaks ever time the user hits enter, by line breaks i mean the
tag, this is because the text file is read by another php script that echoes it into the document. I want it to record the users line breaks(When the user hits enter) Similar to how the text area i am using now does it. How can i do this?

EX:
Hi(enter) 
I am jaydman2102(enter)

Posted 3-Aug-13 8:14am

G4mm4R4y

Updated 3-Aug-13 8:19am

v3

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Comments

Zoltán Zörgő 3-Aug-13 16:18pm

This is a simple string replacement task.

G4mm4R4y 3-Aug-13 22:22pm

Than can you please help? Ive already searched google.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Aug-13 23:03pm

Not just this. Also won't work as a line separator inside text area. Please see my answer.
—SA

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 0:19am

Quick side question: What is the purpose of xhtml does it have any advantages besides making you code look better?

2 solutions

Solution 1

The tag   works only for HTML. The text inside a text area is not really HTML, it is treated as a plain text. You need to insert new line character(s) instead. Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline[^].

As you can see, the delimiter is platform-dependent (and this is a shame of creators of those different platforms and the community who failed to agree on some standard). Fortunately, decent browsers understand separators used on different platforms.

—SA

Posted 3-Aug-13 17:02pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 0:11am

It doesn't HAVE to be tags I just need it to read the text file that is getting its text from a text area to have line breaks were you hit enter. Your answer is unclear to me.
EDIT: I know only works in html, but the text file is read by php and outputted as html

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Aug-13 0:14am

Okay, I understand, but what's unclear in my answer? Just insert characters with the code point 13 (0xD), they will work as breaks.
—SA

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 0:19am

Will the user have to input them? Im so confused. I want something so when they hit submit it adds br tags or even better it adds \n and php looks for every \n and puts after it so that it looks better in both php and html because it opens a text file and puts the textarea in there (The value of it) so like this
(IN A TEXTAREA)
Hello
Hi
(NOW IM NOT)
It automatically adds something to break the lines in php and html or just add br tags.. I don't know if im just repeating myself if I am please tell me.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Aug-13 1:11am

The user inputs newline characters by pressing ENTER inside text area. If you want to set value programmatically, you need to concatenate lines with newline characters.
—SA

G4mm4R4y 12-Aug-13 19:21pm

I have a question, i know this is an old question but why was the nl2br() function mentioned?

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 1:13am

How do I do this? <--- That is the main point I want it to add them but how?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Aug-13 1:18am

What do you mean "how"? Do you have problems with string manipulations?..
—SA

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 1:23am

Im not sure... how... Manipulate strings, that is. Im only fluent in html my php is VERY rusty. Learning from http://w3schools.com/ wasnt the best choice im trying to find something.. better. My problem with string manipulations is that i do not know how.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Aug-13 1:26am

But what is the way you want to create the value? PHP? JavaScript? In all cases, read on string concatenation and/or string formatting in the language of interest.
—SA

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 1:28am

I would like to do it in whatever can do it before it hits php, so i guess i would have to use javascript?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Aug-13 1:33am

Oh... Well, your problem is not rusty JavaScript, PHP or any other language. Your problem is maybe understanding of how Web works. PHP works only on the server side, JavaScript — on the client side. In most cases, it's pretty apparent what should be used where, to a developer understanding what's really going on. In some other case (less typical), you need to make a difficult solution.

In your case, it all depends on your ultimate goals.

Chances are: you don't need to program it at all: the user presses ENTER, and it creates a line break on a multiline input such as text area. If you really need to set value programmatically, you would need to explain the purpose of it.

—SA

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 2:09am

Obviously as i see now my explanation to you was wrong sorry, Yes i know when they hit enter (BOOM) look a new line! But if you hit submit php stores that as one line that is all.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Aug-13 2:25am

Not clear. What's the problem with submit? The form itself is submitted correctly, but your PHP code could be wrong...
—SA

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 15:15pm

No no code is wrong. No errors or anything i simply want it to be broken or something or someway how is this not clear? :\

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Aug-13 17:17pm

"No error" does not mean the code is right. Anyway, you did not show any...
—SA

G4mm4R4y 4-Aug-13 20:17pm

Its not asking if a code is right its asking, what code can i add.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Aug-13 19:43pm

Hm. Sorry, but how this note about "not asking" could possibly be relevant? We already saw your question. You cannot add any code to wring code, isn't that obvious?
—SA

G4mm4R4y 12-Aug-13 21:45pm

The code wasnt wrong. No errors and is what i expected. Therefore it is right. What IS wrong was that i couldnt find a way to add br tags but i now know to use the nl2br() function.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Aug-13 22:04pm

How many times do I have to explain that "br" is only HTML, and that user's ENTER creates a line break? You are lost.
—SA

G4mm4R4y 15-Aug-13 23:45pm

Really, im lost? Allow me to give a link to a working model. I will gladly.

G4mm4R4y 26-Jul-14 12:32pm

I seriously apoligize for how idiotic i was... but seriously nl2br() works perfectly here...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Jul-14 12:48pm

There is nothing idiotic in making some mistakes, but being stubborn on insisting of them could be, which is, fortunately, not your case. :-)

I'm very glad you sorted things out.
Good luck, call again.

—SA

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-03T19:17:00

Jaydman asked:
Quick side question: What is the purpose of xhtml does it have any advantages besides making you code look better?

Huge advantage: you can validate that the code is correct using any XML parser.

Actually, you should not even play with the idea of writing some HTML code which is not well-formed XML, even if your document type is HTML and not XHTML. Working in a quick but sloppy way does not pay off. The looseness of original HTML (as compared with XML) was a considerable design mistake, in my opinion. In real life, writing such loose HTML makes no practical sense; you would not gain anything except potential troubles.

One of the possible techniques I would recommend: create all files as XHTML, validate them as you type, and, at the very end, you can rename them to HTML.

—SA