Formatting form data

[dbillings]

I have a problem understanding how I can submit form data to a mysql database and preserve the formatting that the user wants. Essentially the problem is line breaks. When a user inserts data into a text area the text automatically jumps to the next line when the one line fills up with text. Yet when the data is submitted to mysql it doesn't preserve the breaks. I've tried several solutions like the <pre> tag. Basically I want the break that the html textarea creates automatically when it reaches the end of the text area to generate a <br /> tag in my data submission. If anyone can give me a solution I would appreciate it. Thanks.

[AndyB]

Use nl2br() on the output from the database - http://ca.php.net/manual/en/function.nl2br.php

[trq]

asically I want the break that the html textarea creates automatically when it reaches the end of the text area

 

There is no linebreak created automatically, its just the wrapping affect of displaying data within a textarea. You could try using wordwrap when displaying this data back to fake it.

 

Another function to look into would be nl2br, this comes in handy for changing actual linebreaks into

<br />

tags.

 

Note: Both these functions should only be applied to your data on the wway out of the database. Store your data in its raw format wherever possible.

[dbillings]

<pre>Hello                    This                              is                                    a                  test                  of                                  how                      this                        forum                          handles                                        a                                              pre                  tag                              </pre>

[trq]

Just place the data with a fixed sized table or better still a div, this really is a html issue, nothing to do with php.

[dbillings]

              This is a test

to see if this forum

 

preserves line breaks without using newline or break

 

code.

[keeB]

dbillings, basically you have 2 options (yes it always comes down to 2 options it seems)

 

1. Use a WYSIWYG type Editor and save the contents of that to your DB

2. Do as suggested, save the textarea as normal, and then when you do something like this:

 

<?php

$q = "select textarea from myTable where id='1'";
$result = mysql_query($q);
$data = mysql_fetch_array($result);

print nl2br($data['textarea']);
?>

 

 

[dbillings]

See my above post isn't formated with a div or table.

[keeB]

It most certainly used nl2br http://php.net/nl2br or a variation.

 

Here's your post's source:

 

<div class="post">              This is a test<br />to see if this forum <br /><br /> .. etc

[dbillings]

nl2br doesn't produce the non breaking spaces in the beginning. And a pre html tag will give you a run on sentence unless the user hits return. grrrr. any suggestions for a wysiwyg editor?

[keeB]

TinyMCE.

 

To get the non breaking spaces, feel free to write your own function, something like..

 

<?php
function format_output($out) {
/*
    replaces " " with %nbsp (replace with &)
  */
  return nl2br(str_replace (" ", "%nbsp; ", $out));

}
?>