line breaks

[stuckwithcode]

Hello I have this code below that converts all types of line breaks to \r\n.

 

$text = preg_replace('#[\r\n]+#', "\n", $text);

 

But if there are 5 line breaks it groups them to 1.  I want to keep the number of line breaks the same, just make them all the same format.    If I remove the + it seems to double the actual number of line breaks.  Can anyone help?

[premiso]

Just use str_replace as this is rather simple:

 

$text = str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $text);

 

You generally only want to use the preg functions when you need advance replacement / finding of contents inside a string. Since you do not, str_replace will due and would be preferred.

[stuckwithcode]

But would

 

$text = str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $text);

 

Repace \r\n and \r and \n or just \r\n

[premiso]

Just \r\n. Please do not create multiple topics on the same subject. One will suffice, for future reference.

 

Try this for your preg code:

$text = preg_replace("#[\r\n]+#", "\n", $text);

 

As the \r\n characters are taken literally inside of single quotes, but inside of double quotes they are the actual linebreak characters.

 

EDIT:

If you want to be able to see it by reading it you can use this to verify that it works:

$text = preg_replace("#[\r\n]+#", " REPLACED ", $text);

 

That way, any \n, \r etc characters that get replaced are visible by the REPLACED word.

[stuckwithcode]

If i take the text

 

a

b

 

and put it into the function the one line break get doubled.

 

e.g  a\r\nb goes to a\r\n\r\nb what am I doing wrong.  I just want to convert all types of line breaks to \r\n and keep the number of line breaks.

[premiso]

I do not know how you are getting double line breaks. Using this code it:

 

<?php
$text = "this is just \r test \r\n text inside \n of text \n\r more text";

$text2 = preg_replace("#[\r\n]+#", "REPLACED", $text);
echo $text2 . "<br /><pre>";

$text = preg_replace("#[\r\n]+#", "\n", $text);
echo $text;
?>

 

Displays this:

this is just REPLACED test REPLACED text inside REPLACED of text REPLACED more text

this is just 
test 
text inside 
of text 
more text

 

Like it should.

[stuckwithcode]

but what if there are two line breaks as below:

 

$text = "this is just \r test \r\n\r\n text inside \n of text \n\r more text";

 

the echo should be:

 

this is just

test

 

text inside

of text

more text

 

but instead it is:

 

this is just

test

text inside

of text

more text

 

How can I keep the multiple line breaks?

[premiso]

<?php
$text = "this is just \r test \r\n text inside \n of text \n\r more text \r\n\r\n after the window \n\r\n\r ok";

$text = preg_replace("#[\r\n]{1,2}#", "\n", $text);
echo $text;

 

Should give:

this is just 
test 
text inside 
of text 
more text 

after the window 

ok

[stuckwithcode]

Thats exactly what I wanted.  Can you please tell me how "#[\r\n]{1,2}#" achieves what I wanted, what does the 1 and 2 do.

 

Will this code work for multiple lines in a row or is there a limit.

Thanks.

[premiso]

It will match the following:

\n

\r

\r\n

\n\r

 

The 1,2 means it will only match 1 or both of those items and no more, the + would match any number of characters \r\n\n\r as long as they were sequential and replace them once. 

[stuckwithcode]

Thanks for the help.