inserting newlines in a long string

vtlozano

I would like to take a long string created from an array by the implode( ) function and

insert newlines or carriage returns where the implode ( ) delimiter concatenated the string (in this case the delimiter is "--") so that
I can pass the modified string (with line breaks or carriage returns ) to a $mail_body variable for e-mailing.

Is this possible, and could anyone suggest a good way to do it?

Thank you.

stolzyboy

give me an example of the string, and an example of what you would like it to look like

vtlozano

Thank you for replying so quickly.

It's a pretty long string, made up of comments to an exit poll pulled from a mysql db:

Thursday September 4 2003 12:58:37 PM--The consultant was extremely friendly and tried to help me.--Thursday September 4 2003 04:01:54 PM--thank god for the writing center!--Friday September 5 2003 11:36:11 AM--Alisson was very helpful --Monday September 8 2003 09:30:43 AM--concise --Monday September 8 2003 10:34:37 AM--The consultation really helped with organizing my paper and finding a structure appropriate to the purpose of my paper.--Monday September 8 2003 10:38:14 AM--Noelle was great!--Monday September 8 2003 11:37:03 AM--Extremely helpful with grammatical and transitional questions!--Monday September 8 2003 11:40:34 AM--Tyler helped with the paper--Monday September 8 2003 12:19:52 PM--what i found helpful was that the consultant helped me realize where my paper needed work and gave ideas on how to make it better--Monday September 8 2003 12:34:21 PM--Thanks to Jeff who is very good at enlightening me to learn about writing process. --Monday September 8 20!
03 12:52:38 PM--i liked how she wrote my corrections on the page vs. just leaving me to try to remeber them.--Monday September 8 2003 01:22:08 PM--Kristin Cole is an excellent consultant. very knowledgable!--Monday September 8 2003 01:48:20 PM--The consultant was very helpful to me. She was the best one I have worked with so far.--Monday September 8 2003 01:52:04 PM--My consult was an ass-kicking force.
--Monday September 8 2003 02:33:00 PM--I really like that i was helped right away, i got the anwsers that I was looking for. after being helped i now feel more comfortable about the project at hand. thanks.--Monday September 8 2003 03:01:11 PM--I found it very encouraging to be able to come here and be able to get pesonal attention on some basic writing skills. Thanks!--Monday September 8 2003 03:08:45 PM--It was helpful that she had actually taken the same class that I was writing the paper for.--Monday September 8 2003 03:20:12 PM--My consultant was patient and very helpful! --Monday September 8 2003 03:46:32 PM--it was only a one page assignment so there was not much to be done, but i felt on a longer paper this will be a huge asset to my academics.--Monday September 8 2003 07:10:26 PM--Wanda was wonderful. She has a very complete knowledge of the Spanish Language. I felt very comfortable working with her. It was great. I loved it!!--Tuesday September 9 2003 10:50:!
23 AM--The consultant, Laurie, was very helpful in explaining the problems with my paper and what she liked about my paper.--Tuesday September 9 2003 11:32:42 AM--I used the writing center purely to test my paper on an audience other than myself. my goal was accomplished.--Tuesday September 9 2003 12:13:50 PM--Nazi was great!--Tuesday September 9 2003 01:37:38 PM--writing out what we were specifically looking to improve in the assignment was a helpful guide--Tuesday September 9 2003 02:25:11 PM--It was very helpful.--Tuesday September 9 2003 03:56:57 PM--the one on one consultation is extremely helpful; I like how there are multiple consultants and walk ons are usually not a problem. I appreciate the help. Thanks--Tuesday September 9 2003 04:40:27 PM--thank you very much, you helped me out a bunch--Tuesday September 9 2003 05:05:37 PM--I am very happy I came today. Because of my consultation, I am certain to make a good grade. Thanks--Tuesday September 9 2003 05:22:34 PM!
--It was helpful to make me think about what I wanted to say !
instead of being told what to say--Tuesday September 9 2003 05:59:04 PM--HElpful : The comsultant helps me understand why I need to provide details in writing.--Tuesday September 9 2003 06:52:45 PM--It was very helpful. I was nervous about turning in my first college paper, and I am leaving feeling like I can handlie this whole college thing!--Tuesday September 9 2003 08:20:34 PM--I found it really helpful that my consultant was able to help me expand on my paper, and think of more relevant things to write about (something I was never really good at). --Wednesday September 10 2003 11:26:57 AM--Consultant helped me to improve the paper instead of just telling me how they thought it should be improved--Wednesday September 10 2003 11:30:49 AM--explain and expand--Wednesday September 10 2003 02:42:20 PM--i liked the reading out loud--Wednesday September 10 2003 03:38:06 PM--Information delivered with a smile doesn\'t taste so bad.--Wednesday September 10 2003 04:06:27 PM--the co!
nsultant was very knowledgeable and I trusted her opinions and suggestions. It was a great experience. She helped me to feel more confident in my own writing! 🙂--Wednesday September 10 2003 05:03:58 PM--Thanks for your help!--Wednesday September 10 2003 08:32:00 PM--Chuck will be a good writing mentor--Wednesday September 10 2003 08:45:16 PM--When writing a research paper, it is really important to have someone helping who knows that subject...i.e.....Genetics was hard to explain to my consultant.--Thursday September 11 2003 10:12:48 AM--Christopher was very helpful. He helped but still let me run the show. He kind of pushed me in one direction, but wanted me to jump off. Great experience! Thanks!--Thursday September 11 2003 10:49:48 AM--the instructor was really helpful and pointed out the various ways to make my writing better.--Thursday September 11 2003 12:20:15 PM--Donna is a great people person!--Thursday September 11 2003 02:47:00 PM--My consultant was specific!
in what I could do to better clarify my arguement. She did !
a great job!

What I would prefer the body of the email text to look like:

Thursday September 4 2003 12:58:37 PM
The consultant was extremely friendly and tried to help me.

Thursday September 4 2003 04:01:54 PM
thank god for the writing center!

Friday September 5 2003 11:36:11 AM
Alisson was very helpful --Monday

September 8 2003 09:30:43 AM
concise

etc...

Appreciate any insight

stolzyboy

that's kinda what i thought, you can do something like this:

<?
$searchValue = "test--this--is--great";
$searchValue = str_replace("--", "<br>", $searchValue); //or /n depending on what type of email sent: html or plain
echo $searchValue;
//that will echo
/*
test
this
is
great
*/
?>

Wynder

Not sure if you had artifically added in those dashes.

If you insert form data into a MySQL database and want to get those newlines back, when you pull it from the database, do this:

$comments = nl2br($row['comments']);

That replaces the nulls with newlines.

vtlozano

thank you for both replies. Most helpful.

vtlozano

Hmm... there appears to be an issue with calling the str_replace ( ) function to operate on a string variable. Here's the code:

function list_comments($comment ="", $table =""){

$query = "SELECT date_format(date,'%W %M %e %Y %r') ,$comment FROM $table WHERE TO_DAYS(NOW()) - TO_DAYS(date) <= 7 AND $comment NOT LIKE ''";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$number = 1;
$text[]= "first item";

     while ($other_answer = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {

             array_push($text,$other_answer[0]);
             array_push($text,$other_answer[1]);

             $number++;
          }

     $string = implode("--",$text);

     return $string;


   }






   $long_string = list_comments("comment","exit_poll.questions"); //this is line 47, where the error points
   $searchValue_ =_ $long_string;
   $searchValue_ =_ str_replace("--","/n" ,$searchValue);_ 

   $mail_body = $searchValue; 
   $mail_subject = "weekly comments";
   $mail_to = "vtlozano@dummyaddress.com";

   mail($mail_to, $mail_subject, $mail_body);

And here's the error message I receive:

Parse error: parse error in /Library/WebServer/Documents/pages/surveys/weekly_comments.php on line 47

Any ideas?

Thank you