[RESOLVED] Format of input?

[Smeep]

Hey again 😃

Just wondered if there is someway that I can get the data input in to a feild, to display exactly like it is entered, Much like this forum. If I press the return key, it starts a new line etc.

Like this 😃

However - I want whitespace (spacebars and multiple returns) to collapse, to prevent malusage.

Is there something I can do to the entry part to make it so?

[devinemke]

form input will be sent to the server exactly as entered with all of the newlines. to display those newlines in your browser you should run the data thru [man]nl2br[/man].

[Smeep]

I'm not sure I follow :S Are you talking about newlines as in /n's or when I press the enter key?

[devinemke]

when typing in a <textarea> form field, the [enter] key will insert a newline character. different OS's have different newline characters:

Windows: \r\n
Unix: \n
Mac: \r

this text data (including the newlines) will be sent to the server when the form is submitted. you can run the data thru [man]nl2br[/man] to convert the newlines to <br> HTML tags.

[Smeep]

Good stuff, Thanks for the help, I'll have a fiddle with it in the morning 😃

[Smeep]

Alright, here's my output script. I'm not sure where I should be putting this function (sorry, i'm stupid) should it be after the echo tags? Or is there someway to apply the newlines to the part where I enter the information?

		$number_of_records = mysql_num_rows($result);
					if(!$result)

				{
		echo 'There are no reviews to display';
				 }
		else
				{

				$author = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-1,"author");
				$date = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-1,"date");
				$title = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-1,"title");
				$text = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-1,"text");

		echo '<table width="600" cellspacing="0" border="2"><tr><td><center>' .$author .'</center></td><td><center>' .$date .'<br /></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><center> ' .$title .' <br /><br /></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><center>' .$text .'</center></td></tr></table><br /><br /><br />';

				$author = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-2,"author");
				$date = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-2,"date");
				$title = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-2,"title");
				$text = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-2,"text");

		echo '<table width="600" cellspacing="0" border="2"><tr><td><center>' .$author .'</center></td><td><center>' .$date .'<br /></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><center> ' .$title .' <br /><br /></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><center>' .$text .'</center></td></tr></table><br /><br /><br />';

				$author = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-3,"author");
				$date = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-3,"date");
				$title = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-3,"title");
				$text = mysql_result($result,$number_of_records-3,"text");

		echo '<table width="600" cellspacing="0" border="2"><tr><td><center>' .$author .'</center></td><td><center>' .$date .'<br /></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><center> ' .$title .' <br /><br /></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><center>' .$text .'</center></td></tr></table><br /><br /><br />';

		}

[Smeep]

Sorry for bumping but it's been 24 hours now (Is that the legal bumping limit or is that somewhere else?)

[clairence]

Smeep, your original question (and subsequent answer) introduced me to this forum and also helped me with an identical problem I was having.
That said, here's what worked for me.

Use the nl2br on your echo lines.

For example,

echo '<table width="600" cellspacing="0" border="2"><tr><td><center>' .nl2br($author) .'</center> ...

[Smeep]

Brilliant, I'm gunna try that in a jiffy 🙂

EDIT: Brilliant. Thank you.