How Can I Preserve Line Breaks from Textareas in PHP and HTML?

Maintaining Line Breaks from TextAreas: PHP nl2br() and HTML Pre Tag

In situations where user input may include line breaks, preserving those breaks becomes essential for readability and accurate display. In the context of text areas, line breaks are often lost during output due to PHP's default text processing. This article presents two effective methods to ensure line breaks are maintained.

Method 1: Utilizing PHP's nl2br() Function

The nl2br() function is a PHP tool specifically designed to convert newlines (rn) into HTML line breaks (
). By employing this function, line breaks entered by users are translated into HTML elements, which browsers recognize and render accordingly.

Example:

<?php

$text = "This\r\nis\n\ra\nstring\r";
echo nl2br($text);

?>

Output:

This<br />
is<br />
a<br />
string<br />

Method 2: Wrapping Input in

Tags

HTML provides the

tag to format text in a non-formatted style, preserving its original formatting, including line breaks. This tag instructs browsers to render the enclosed text exactly as it is entered, without any modifications or wrapping.

Example:

<pre class="brush:php;toolbar:false">
This
is
a
string

Output:

This
is
a
string

By implementing either of these methods, you can effectively maintain line breaks entered by users within a textarea, ensuring they are displayed accurately when outputted.

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