nl2br function backwards?

[Anon]

Hello!

I'm using the function nl2br() before saving data from an textarea to database (as simple text). This function does the exact thing I was searching for, but it doesn't work backwards.

For example: I grab the saved text from the database for editing, I put it in a textarea (just like the input before), but then there are br tags, placed in instead of "new line".

How can I replace br tags with "newline", before I put the text into a textarea for editing?

Thanks in advance,
edmund

[Anon]

You can do:
$text = str_replace("<br>", "\n", $text);

This will replace all <br> to newlines

/Staffan

[kparker]

Actually, you should consider changing the way you use nl2br(). The issue it addresses is purely related to html, and has nothing to do with storing data in a database. Just go ahead and put the data in as is (making sure to call addslashes() if it's not being done magically), and then apply nl2br() when you retrieve the data and want to actually display it. That way, when your destination is a textarea section, you can just skip the nl2br() and you'll get the desired result.