converting multiple lines breaks into singles

[thecommonthread]

So I have this textarea in an HTML form that I need to convert the contents of from having multiple line breaks into only one line break for each.

 

Example: I want to convert the following:

I went to the store.

I had a good time.



I ran into a friend.

 

Into this:

I went to the store.
I had a good time.
I ran into a friend.

 

Any help would be super appreciated.

[btherl]

You may be able to do it like this:

 

$text = preg_replace("|\n+|", "\n", $text);

 

It may not work if the line character is not just "\n".  If it doesn't work, try "\r\n" in place of both of the "\n".

 

Another approach is to use explode() or preg_split() to put the lines in an array, then remove empty lines, then join() them together again.

[thecommonthread]

I tried your first method and couldn't make it work unfortunately.

 

If I used the explode() method, how would I remove empty lines in the array?  Maybe I'm not understanding this method completely.

[cssfreakie]

I tried your first method and couldn't make it work unfortunately.

 

If I used the explode() method, how would I remove empty lines in the array?  Maybe I'm not understanding this method completely.

can you show how you tried it, with code

[thecommonthread]

I used the code above:

$text = preg_replace("|\n+|", "\n", $text);

I couldn't get it to work, and I tried using \r or \r\n as well.

[dcro2]

Try:

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

[thecommonthread]

Thank you so so so much, that worked.  PHEW!  :-\