Changing One String Into Another

[Grabeorama]

hi :)I have at the moment a small form where you can type what you want, click save, it writes it to a file, and includes the file lower on the page.I would like to make it so that when \n is type, it is replaced by <br /> is there a way of doing this in PHP?Thanks

[Anman]

$userinput is what the user wrote.

<?php$userinput = str_replace("\n", "<br />", $userinput);?>

So if the user inputs:My name is Bob.\nMy last name is Smith.$userinput will become:My name is Bob.<br />My last name is Smith.

[Ingolme]

Or just use the nl2br() function:

$userInput = nl2br($userInput);

[Grabeorama]

O.k.Thanks I'll try that

[Anman]

Or just use the nl2br() function:

$userInput = nl2br($userInput);

I wouldn't use that just because it's a very limited function that does what I mention.However, there is nothing wrong with it.

[Grabeorama]

<?php$userinput = str_replace("\n", "<br />", $userinput);?>

I used this, and it worked great! Thanks!

[Synook]

I wouldn't use that just because it's a very limited function that does what I mention.However, there is nothing wrong with it.

nl2br() may be the more limited of the two functions, but the advantage of it is that it is faster - much faster. In my benchmarking test, it ran over twice as fast as the str_replace() call. See for yourself:

<?php	header("content-type:text/plain");	$nl2br = array();	$str_replace = array();	for ($j = 1; $j <= 20; $j++) {		$then = microtime(true);		for ($i = 1; $i <= 100000; $i++) nl2br("\n");		$nl2br[] = microtime(true) - $then;		$then = microtime(true);		for ($i = 1; $i <= 100000; $i++) str_replace("\n", "<br />", "\n");		$str_replace[] = microtime(true) - $then;	}	$nl2br = array_sum($nl2br) / count($nl2br);	$str_replace = array_sum($str_replace) / count($str_replace);	echo "Speeds (in seconds)\n";	echo "nl2br():\t\t$nl2br\n";	echo "str_replace():\t\t$str_replace\n";	echo "Difference:\t\t" . ($nl2br - $str_replace) . "\n";	echo "Ratio:\t\t\t" . ($nl2br / $str_replace);?>

[Anman]

nl2br() may be the more limited of the two functions, but the advantage of it is that it is faster - much faster. In my benchmarking test, it ran over twice as fast as the str_replace() call. See for yourself:

<?php	header("content-type:text/plain");	$nl2br = array();	$str_replace = array();	for ($j = 1; $j <= 20; $j++) {		$then = microtime(true);		for ($i = 1; $i <= 100000; $i++) nl2br("\n");		$nl2br[] = microtime(true) - $then;		$then = microtime(true);		for ($i = 1; $i <= 100000; $i++) str_replace("\n", "<br />", "\n");		$str_replace[] = microtime(true) - $then;	}	$nl2br = array_sum($nl2br) / count($nl2br);	$str_replace = array_sum($str_replace) / count($str_replace);	echo "Speeds (in seconds)\n";	echo "nl2br():\t\t$nl2br\n";	echo "str_replace():\t\t$str_replace\n";	echo "Difference:\t\t" . ($nl2br - $str_replace) . "\n";	echo "Ratio:\t\t\t" . ($nl2br / $str_replace);?>

The problem is nl2br() returns pure HTML, so you must be careful in which order you transform the string.That's why I tell people to use str_replace(), but hey, if you're not getting errors and have no problem concering limits use nl2br() by all means.Oh and if you're using an HTML file as opposed to an XHTML file use nl2br($string, false); for the sake of file space.