Hard returns?

[blitzwing]

If I give a user a text box to enter something into a database, they might want to make a list. Instead of creating a self contained tags system, or letting the list HTML parse in with the rest of the text, how can I code it to record hard returns so people can make their own list and have it printed correctly when the text is queried back out?

-something
-like
-this?

I tried digging around the boards first, but I'm not even sure if I'm using the correct terminology. Thanks!

[vaaaska]

When the text goes into the db you need to process it and change " \n " to <br>. I believe nl2br() would do the trick but you may need to play around with things to get it all sorted out...

http://www.php.net/nl2br/

[devinemke]

as vaaaska said nl2br() will convert all of the line breaks to <br> tags but that won't create a list, i assume you mean a bulleted list like using <ul><li> tags.

The only way to do it is to either allow HTML tags in the text box (which can get very messy) or create your own custom tags and create <ul><li> tags within the enclosed text.

[blitzwing]

Worked great. Thanks guys.

By the way, I wasn't looking for a list. I just wanted someone posting text to be able to manually put a list in, just by simply typing dashes, or whatever they want and hitting enter.

Thanks again. 🙂

[ScubaKing22]

Originally posted by devinemke
as vaaaska said nl2br() will convert all of the line breaks to <br> tags

Just as a technicality it replaces them with the newer XHTML-compliant <br /> 😉