[Resolved] HTML text question

jllydgnt

How do you format text in HTML to retain all of the carriage returns and spacing that was used when it was entered into a textarea? I have users entering text into a textarea and they are going to insert some blank lines and add some spaces to give the indent effect, etc. The database is storing all of this correctly, cause when I spit it back out into a textarea, all the formatting they did remains. However, when I output it as plain text in the browser, it loses all that formatting and just appears as one big paragraph. Are there any tags that could handle this or does this require a Rich Text Editor or something like it? Or could you use PHP to search the text and replace carriage returns with <br>? What approach would you recommend?

goldbug

Use nl2br()

http://us4.php.net/manual/en/function.nl2br.php

jllydgnt

Works great. Thanks for the help. Do they have something like that for spaces that you know about? I looked around for a while in the manual and did not see anything that was as easy as nl2br() for spaces. By the way, how is Tom from Marketing?

goldbug

Do they have something like that for spaces that you know about? I looked around for a while in the manual and did not see anything that was as easy as nl2br() for spaces.

What do you want to do to spaces? convert them to &nbsp; or something?

By the way, how is Tom from Marketing?

I wasn't aware that Sealab even had a marketing dept. 🙂

jllydgnt

Yeah, that's exactly what I want to do. Convert spaces to &nbs-. And yes, the Sealab marketing department is one of the best. They could sell sex to a prostitute.

bad76

Hi,
but instead of convert with nl2br or other, you can't output between <pre> tag?

goldbug

Heh, beat me to it bad76 🙂

Exactly tho, use nl2br if you are barfing blocks of text to the screen, but if you need full pre-formatted text, you should be using <pre></pre>, or any random tag with a little CSS applied:

<div style="white-space: pre;">

If you still want to not use pre-tags, and want your spaces preserved, just do something like:

$output = str_replace(' ','&nbsp;',$input);

Note: remember, if Joe User decides to use like 400 spaces ( &nbsp; ) in a row, your page width will stretch too, using either method.

piersk

Oh my god! Do you mean to say that there was a function to do that when I've been having to write regexps to do it for me??

That's most definately a Doh!

stolzyboy

Originally posted by piersk
Oh my god! Do you mean to say that there was a function to do that when I've been having to write regexps to do it for me??

That's most definately a Doh!

you're serious piersk?

piersk

Most definately.

aside to stolzy are you following me around? First the mod's forum, now here... hmmm

stolzyboy

tend to pick one person per day to follow, you are just the lucky one today

jllydgnt

Originally posted by bad76
Hi,
but instead of convert with nl2br or other, you can't output between <pre> tag?

I tried that and maybe I am not using the tag correctly, but it just spits out the text all in one line which stretches out my table I use to control the width of the page. The nlsbr is perfect for what I need. Do you know of anything as easy for spaces? Or another method for spaces? Anyone?

stolzyboy

as goldbug already showed you

$output = str_replace(' ','&nbsp;',$input);

goldbug

Did you see my last post at all??

EDIT:
Stolzyboy: JINX!

stolzyboy

Originally posted by goldbug
Did you see my last post at all??

EDIT:
Stolzyboy: JINX!

aaahhhh, you always get me on that jinx don't ya

jllydgnt

Man, you guys are pretty ruthless. Sorry. I was asking if there is already a function for spaces (like the nl2br) or for any other approaches (other than the one Goldbug provided). Just curious, want to look at it from a couple different angles, etc.