Adding PHP line breaks in place of carriage returns inside strings: nl2br()

Convert newlines to HTML line breaks

nl2br() inserts HTML <br> tags before newline characters. Escape untrusted text before applying nl2br() when displaying it as HTML.

$text = "Line one\nLine two";
echo nl2br(htmlspecialchars($text, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8'));

The examples below show additional variations, expected output and practical usage.

$str="Welcome \n to plus2net";
echo nl2br($str);

Output

Welcome
to plus2net

Syntax

$string=nl2br($string);

To add line breaks in html we have to use <br> tags but to add this line break to any text entry from a form or from a text area we have to use the function nl2br() in PHP. The nl2br() function inserts an HTML line-break tag before newline characters in a string. This way we can automatically add line breaks for a web page inside a string. Here is the syntax of nl2br() function.

The most practical use of this is when users enter their data in a text area and then the details are displayed back to the visitors. Here if the visitor has used line breaks inside the text area then while displaying the details we have to take care of line breaks. When text entered in a textarea is displayed as HTML, nl2br() can preserve the user's line breaks.

Store the original textarea value, including its newline characters. Apply htmlspecialchars() and then nl2br() when rendering the value as HTML. This keeps stored data reusable for later editing and prevents submitted HTML from being executed.

Using PHP_EOL

Use PHP_EOL when generating platform-native text output such as files or command-line text.

echo 'This is text part'.PHP_EOL;

\n : Common newline on Linux / Unix
\r\n : Common newline on Windows
PHP_EOL resolves to the platform-specific end-of-line sequence.

Here is a demo of the use of this function. You can see how the data of the text area gets displayed with and without the line breaks. ( The only difference between the two is before displaying the second case nl2br() function is used. )

String Functions strip_tags() To remove HTML tags from a string

Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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vijay	19-12-2014
good one

nl2br() : Inserting HTML Line breaks before all newlines in a string

Convert newlines to HTML line breaks

Using PHP_EOL

Subhendu Mohapatra