[PHP/MySQL] Maintaining wordwrap in submitted data

3,018 · January 18, 2005

I have a page that queries a database for an essay stored in it. Here's a snippet of the code where the user submits the essay:

Essay: &lt;br&gt; &lt;textarea rows="10" cols="30" name="essay"&gt;Copy your essay here...&lt;/textarea&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;input type="Submit" name="Submit" value="Submit Essay"&gt;
&lt;/form&gt;

And it is sent to a MySQL database via php where it is stored at "longtext" and later called back on another page. How can I preserve formatting or basically just paragraphs and line breaks?

3,018 · January 18, 2005

For some reason it's not letting me edit my post, but I should add that this is a snippet of the PHP code that calls back the submitted data from the database:

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {

echo "&lt;b&gt;Submitter:&lt;/b&gt;{$row['submitter']}&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;School:&lt;/b&gt; {$row['school']}&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt;{$row['author']}&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Grade:&lt;/b&gt; {$row['grade']}&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Submitter's E-Mail:&lt;/b&gt;{$row['subemail']}&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author's E-mail:&lt;/b&gt;{$row['authemail']}&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Phone:&lt;/b&gt;{$row['phone']}&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Essay:&lt;/b&gt;{$row['essay']}&lt;br&gt;
}

1,309 · January 18, 2005

Try the nl2br function which converts linebreaks to HTML linebreaks(<br />).

1,830 · January 18, 2005

That's some... ermm... code ....there.

Try writing it like this for proper syntax.

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
echo "&lt;b&gt;Submitter:&lt;/b&gt;" . $row['submitter'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;School:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['school'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt;" . $row['author'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Grade:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['grade'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Submitter's E-Mail:&lt;/b&gt;" . $row['subemail'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author's E-mail:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['authemail'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Phone:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['phone'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Essay:&lt;/b&gt;" . nl2br($row['essay']) ."&lt;br&gt;
}

" . stuff . " is the string concatenation (chaining) syntax. Seperate text strings from language constructs like variables and functions.

1,105 · January 18, 2005

^^ yep, nl2br.

That, or " str_replace("\n", "<br />", $row['essay']) "

edit - heh, i'd use his formatting tips, too :) make the code readable.

3,018 · January 18, 2005

amoeba said:
That's some... ermm... code ....there.
Try writing it like this for proper syntax.
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
echo "&lt;b&gt;Submitter:&lt;/b&gt;" . $row['submitter'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;School:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['school'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt;" . $row['author'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Grade:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['grade'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Submitter's E-Mail:&lt;/b&gt;" . $row['subemail'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author's E-mail:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['authemail'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Phone:&lt;/b&gt; " . $row['phone'] . "&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Essay:&lt;/b&gt;" . nl2br($row['essay']) ."&lt;br&gt;
}
" . stuff . " is the string concatenation (chaining) syntax. Seperate text strings from language constructs like variables and functions.

585312945[/snapback]

That worked like a charm, thank you so much. I used a tutorial which apparently was not a very good one because it used syntax like that... :pinch: Learning php and mysql is becoming way too much fun :rofl:

January 18, 2005

Btw, to include arrays into a double-quote-delimited string you can write the keys of the array without any quotes, instead of splitting the string or sorrounding it with curly brakets.

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {

echo "&lt;b&gt;Submitter:&lt;/b&gt;$row[submitter]&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;School:&lt;/b&gt; $row[school]&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author:&lt;/b&gt;$row[author]&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Grade:&lt;/b&gt; $row[grade]&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Submitter's E-Mail:&lt;/b&gt;$row[subemail]&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Author's E-mail:&lt;/b&gt;$row[authemail]&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Phone:&lt;/b&gt;$row[phone]&lt;br&gt;&lt;b&gt;Essay:&lt;/b&gt;".nl2br($row['essay']).'&lt;br&gt;';
}

Don't forget to close the string and put a semicolon to the end of the echo.

If you're not gonna use the in-string variable interpreter (only when you use double quotes) it's faster to use simple-quotes instead and then escape any occurences ( \' ) in the string.

January 19, 2005

Photomatt's autop() function is a much revised, standards compliant and cross platform replacement for nl2br. It's seriously the shizz.

Sign In

[PHP/MySQL] Maintaining wordwrap in submitted data

Question

sfalcon

Link to comment

Share on other sites

7 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

sfalcon

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Michael_C

Link to comment

Share on other sites

amoeba

Link to comment

Share on other sites

linked

Link to comment

Share on other sites

sfalcon

Link to comment

Share on other sites

KeyStorm

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Colloquick

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Recently Browsing 0 members

Posts

Recent Achievements

Popular Contributors

Tell a friend

Choose your Ad Blocker