preserve indentation from a database

[numerical25]

I have articles that I am pulling from a database. Everytime a new paragraph begins, I want it to be indented. Or atleast the data thats being stored in the database is already indented but its not coming out that way. so I have 2 questions

How can I get it to keep the indentation wants its retrieved

or how do I make it indent everytime a new paragraph begins.

Im already using nl2br()

[HalfaBee]

If the indentaion is by spaces, you will have to change the spaces into  

[leatherback]

As you cannot be certain that you will have the right indent al the time (Can you?) you could strtrim the article from space and use css:

div#class: text-indent: 5em;

and you should have the same indent all the time. When you are fed up with the indent, just change the CSS

[numerical25]

Im not fully understanding how that would work leather. what does strtrim do. Is that the correct function called ? and how will css identify what is a paragraph and what needs to be indented. specially if the whole article is wrapped in a tag. cause im pulling it from the database with no tags in the strings.

[knowj]

You would need to use &nsbp; as HalfaBee mentioned and pattern match on \n to detect when a new line is made.