PHP - linebreak in String does not work

Question

I have an array with strings. The strings shall have line breaks. My code produces the
as text not as tag. How can I manage to create a
tag in the HTML that creates a line break?

<?php return array(
  ....
  'subtitle'    => nl2br("My Sentence shall have a \n line break right there") ,
 ...
);


 <title><?php echo htmlspecialchars($CONFIG['subtitle']); ?></title>

Result

   My Sentence shall have a <br> line break right there

You do know what htmlspecialchars() does, don't you? If you have to use htmlspecialchars(), do it before the nl2br() — Mark Baker
– Mark Baker, Commented Sep 11, 2015 at 11:52
htmlspecialchars translates all < and > to < and >, rendering your html tags to not be interpreted by the browser anymore. If you want to have an actual <br> tag in there, avoid htmlspecialchars. — thormeier
– thormeier, Commented Sep 11, 2015 at 11:53
<title> tag doesn't have a line break or i am missing something? — Insane Skull
– Insane Skull, Commented Sep 11, 2015 at 12:04

NaijaProgrammer · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-11 12:06:06Z

1

As most answers have suggested, remove the htmlspecialchars section. Also, your \n should be replaced with \r\n for environments that don't recognize only the \n. The updated code should look like below:

<?php return array(
  ....
  'subtitle'    => nl2br("My Sentence shall have a \r\n line break right there") ,
 ...
);


 <title><?php echo $CONFIG['subtitle']; ?></title>

Hope that helps.

answered Sep 11, 2015 at 12:06

NaijaProgrammer

2,9202 gold badges27 silver badges33 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Mihai Matei · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-11 11:57:25Z

1

Change your code with:

<?php return array(
  ....
  'subtitle'    => "My Sentence shall have a \n line break right there",
 ...
);


 <title><?php echo nl2br(htmlspecialchars($CONFIG['subtitle'])); ?></title>

answered Sep 11, 2015 at 11:57

Mihai Matei

24.3k5 gold badges34 silver badges50 bronze badges

Comments

mikeb · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-11 11:59:20Z

1

The htmlspecialchars does not do

"\n" => "<br/>"

http://php.net/htmlspecialchars

The translations performed are:

'&' (ampersand) becomes '&amp;'
'"' (double quote) becomes '&quot;' when ENT_NOQUOTES is not set.
"'" (single quote) becomes '&#039;' (or &apos;) only when ENT_QUOTES is set.
'<' (less than) becomes '&lt;'
'>' (greater than) becomes '&gt;'

Edit: As the comment below says, http://php.net/nl2br is the best solution.

You need to use a str replace or regex replace or something: http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-replace.php

edited Sep 11, 2015 at 11:59

answered Sep 11, 2015 at 11:53

mikeb

11.5k9 gold badges73 silver badges135 bronze badges

1 Comment

thormeier Over a year ago

Or nl2br(htmlspecialchars($string));

BobbyTables · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-11 11:54:59Z

0

If you skip the htmlspecialchars you get the desired behaviour

 echo $CONFIG['subtitle'];

It replaces your tags so they can be printed in html, and you dont want that

answered Sep 11, 2015 at 11:54

BobbyTables

4,7452 gold badges35 silver badges41 bronze badges

2 Comments

mikeb Over a year ago

He wants to replace \n with <br/>, your solution does not do that.

BobbyTables Over a year ago

@mikeb the issue is not what that "he wants to replace \n with <br/>" (hes already doing that with nl2br), and therefore my solution does not do that. My reply provides a solution to his problem

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP - linebreak in String does not work

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related