i want to know how to keep all whitespaces of a text area in php (for send to database), and then echo then back later. I want to do it like stackoverflow does, for codes, which is the best approach?
For now i using this:
$text = str_replace(' ', '&nbs p;', $text);
It keeps the ' ' whitespaces but i won't have tested it with mysql_real_escape and other "inject prevent" methods together.
For better understanding, i want to echo later from db something like:
function jack(){
var x = "blablabla";
}
Thanks for your time.
Code Blocks
If you're trying to just recreate code blocks like:
function test($param){
return TRUE;
}
Then you should be using <pre></pre> tags in your html:
<pre>
function test($param){
return TRUE;
}
</pre>
As plain html will only show one space even if multiple spaces/newlines/tabs are present. Inside of pre tags spaces will be shown as is.
At the moment your html will look something like this:
function test($param){
return TRUE;
}
Which I would suggest isn't desirable...
Escaping
When you use mysql_real_escape you will convert newlines to plain text \n or \r\n. This means that your code would output something like:
function test($param){\n return TRUE;\n}
OR
<pre>function test($param){\n return TRUE;\n}</pre>
To get around this you have to replace the \n or \r\n strings to newline characters.
Assuming that you're going to use pre tags:
echo preg_replace('#(\\\r\\\n|\\\n)#', "\n", $escapedString);
If you want to switch to html line breaks instead you'd have to switch "\n" to <br />. If this were the case you'd also want to switch out space characters with - I suggest using the pre tags.
try this, works excellently
$string = nl2br(str_replace(" ", " ", $string));
echo "$string";
Related
This question already has answers here:
Converting <br /> into a new line for use in a text area
(6 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I have a text with <br> tags and I want to save it into MySQL database as a new line. not HTML tags.
for example :
$string = 'some text with<br>tags here.'
and I want to save it into MySQL like this :
some text with
tags here
what right str_replace for this purpose? thank you.
There is already a function in PHP that converts a new line to a br called nl2br(). However, the reverse is not true. Instead you can create your own function like this:
function br2nl($string)
{
$breaks = array("<br />","<br>","<br/>");
return str_ireplace($breaks, "\r\n", $string);
}
Then whenever you want to use it, just call it as follows:
$original_string = 'some text with<br>tags here.';
$good_string = br2nl($original_string);
There are three things worth mentioning:
It may be better to store the data in the database exactly as the user entered it and then do the conversion when you retrieve it. Of course this depends what you are doing.
Some systems such as Windows use \r\n. Some systems such as Linux and Mac use \n. Some systems such as older Mac systems user \r for new line characters. Given this and especially if you choose to use point 1. above, you might prefer to use the PHP constant PHP_EOL instead of \r\n. This will give the correct new line character no matter what system you are on.
The method I posted above will be more efficient than preg_replace. However, it does not take into account non-standard HTML such as <br /> and other variations. If you need to take into account these variations then you should use the preg_replace() function. With that said, one can overthink all the possible variations and yet still not account for them all. For example, consider <br id="mybreak"> and many other combinations of attributes and white space.
You could use str_replace, as you suggest.
$string = 'some text with<br>tags here.';
$string = str_replace('<br>', "\r\n", $string);
Although, if your <br> tags may also be closed, <br /> or <br/>, it may be worth considering using preg_replace.
$string = 'some text with<br>tags here.';
$string = preg_replace('/<br(\s+\/)?>/', "\r\n", $string);
Here try this. This will replace all <br> to \r\n.
$string = 'some text with<br>tags here.';
str_replace("<br>","\r\n",$string);
echo $string;
Output:
some text with
tags here.
You can use htmlentities— Convert all HTML characters to entities and html_entity_decode to Convert HTML entities to characters
$string = 'some text with<br>tags here'
$a = htmlentities($string);
$b = html_entity_decode($a);
echo $a; // some text with<br>tags here
echo $b; // some text with<br>tags here
Try :
mysql_real_escape_string
function safe($value){
return mysql_real_escape_string($value);
}
I know I can do a simple replace when wanting to convert <br> tags to new lines. But I am facing a problem with parsing because provided <br> tags are not empty.
<br style=\"color: rgb(83, 83, 83); font-family: \" helvetica=\"\" ...
Back end is not mine, so there is no point in discussing about good or bad coding here, I am just wondering if there is a solution to replace those with simple new lines.
Something like nl2br() but reverse.
EDIT:
Don't know what use is to show code when I know 'why' is the thing that I've tried not working...but here goes
public function removeSingleHtmlFormatting($single)
{
$single->short_description = str_replace("<br>", "\r\n", $single->short_description);
$single->short_description = strip_tags($single->description);
$single->short_description = preg_replace("/ /", " ", $single->short_description);
}
Of course replace doesn't work because there is no such string to replace...I have no idea where to start parsing it
instead of
str_replace("<br>", "\r\n", $single->short_description);
try
preg_replace("/<br.*>/U", "\r\n", $single->short_description);
This way the regular expression matches <br> including anything inside it, not only empty <br>.
I am trying to redo some forms that have uppercase field names and spaces, there are hundreds of fields and 50 + forms... I decided to try to write a PHP script that parses through the HTML of the form.
So now I have a textarea that I will post the html into and I want to change all the field names from
name="Here is a form field name"
to
name="here_is_a_form_field_name"
How in one command could I parse through and change it so all in the name tags would be lowercase and spaces replace with underscores
I am assuming preg_replace with an expression?
Thanks!
I would suggest not using regex for manipulation of HTML .. I would use DOMDocument instead, something like the following
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTMLFile('filename.html');
// loop each textarea
foreach ($dom->getElementsByTagName('textarea') as $item) {
// setup new values ie lowercase and replacing space with underscore
$newval = $item->getAttribute('name');
$newval = str_replace(' ','_',$newval);
$newval = strtolower($newval);
// change attribute
$item->setAttribute('name', $newval);
}
// save the document
$dom->saveHTML();
An alternative would be to use something like Simple HTML DOM Parser for the job - there are some good examples on the linked site
I agree that preg_replace() or rather preg_replace_callback() is the right tool for the job, here's an example of how to use it for your task:
preg_replace_callback('/ name="[^"]"/', function ($matches) {
return str_replace(' ', '_', strtolower($matches[0]))
}, $file_contents);
You should, however, check the results afterwards using a diff tool and fine-tune the pattern if necessary.
The reason why I would recommend against a DOM parser is that they usually choke on invalid HTML or files that contain for example tags for templating engines.
This is your Solution:
<?php
$nameStr = "Here is a form field name";
while (strpos($nameStr, ' ') !== FALSE) {
$nameStr = str_replace(' ', '_', $nameStr);
}
echo $nameStr;
?>
What is the easiest way of applying highlighting of some text excluding text within OCCASIONAL tags "<...>"?
CLARIFICATION: I want the existing tags PRESERVED!
$t =
preg_replace(
"/(markdown)/",
"<strong>$1</strong>",
"This is essentially plain text apart from a few html tags generated with some
simplified markdown rules: <a href=markdown.html>[see here]</a>");
Which should display as:
"This is essentially plain text apart from a few html tags generated with some simplified markdown rules: see here"
... BUT NOT MESS UP the text inside the anchor tag (i.e. <a href=markdown.html> ).
I've heard the arguments of not parsing html with regular expressions, but here we're talking essentially about plain text except for minimal parsing of some markdown code.
Actually, this seems to work ok:
<?php
$item="markdown";
$t="This is essentially plain text apart from a few html tags generated
with some simplified markdown rules: <a href=markdown.html>[see here]</a>";
//_____1. apply emphasis_____
$t = preg_replace("|($item)|","<strong>$1</strong>",$t);
// "This is essentially plain text apart from a few html tags generated
// with some simplified <strong>markdown</strong> rules: <a href=
// <strong>markdown</strong>.html>[see here]</a>"
//_____2. remove emphasis if WITHIN opening and closing tag____
$t = preg_replace("|(<[^>]+?)(<strong>($item)</strong>)([^<]+?>)|","$1$3$4",$t);
// this preserves the text before ($1), after ($4)
// and inside <strong>..</strong> ($2), but without the tags ($3)
// "This is essentially plain text apart from a few html tags generated
// with some simplified <strong>markdown</strong> rules: <a href=markdown.html>
// [see here]</a>"
?>
A string like $item="odd|string" would cause some problems, but I won't be using that kind of string anyway... (probably needs htmlentities(...) or the like...)
You could split the string into tag/no-tag parts using preg_split:
$parts = preg_split('/(<(?:[^"\'>]|"[^"<]*"|\'[^\'<]*\')*>)/', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
Then you can iterate the parts while skipping every even part (i.e. the tag parts) and apply your replacement on it:
for ($i=0, $n=count($parts); $i<$n; $i+=2) {
$parts[$i] = preg_replace("/(markdown)/", "<strong>$1</strong>", $parts[$i]);
}
At the end put everything back together with implode:
$str = implode('', $parts);
But note that this is really not the best solution. You should better use a proper HTML parser like PHP’s DOM library. See for example these related questions:
Highlight keywords in a paragraph
Regex / DOMDocument - match and replace text not in a link
First replace any string after a tag, but force your string is after a tag:
$t=preg_replace("|(>[^<]*)(markdown)|i",'$1<strong>$2</strong>',"<null>$t");
Then delete your forced tag:
$show=preg_replace("|<null>|",'',$show);
You could split your string into an array at every '<' or '>' using preg_split(), then loop through that array and replace only in entries not beginning with an '>'. Afterwards you combine your array to an string using implode().
This regex should strip all HTML opening and closing tags: /(<[.*?]>)+/
You can use it with preg_replace like this:
$test = "Hello <strong>World!</strong>";
$regex = "/(<.*?>)+/";
$result = preg_replace($regex,"",$test);
actually this is not very efficient, but it worked for me
$your_string = '...';
$search = 'markdown';
$left = '<strong>';
$right = '</strong>';
$left_Q = preg_quote($left, '#');
$right_Q = preg_quote($right, '#');
$search_Q = preg_quote($search, '#');
while(preg_match('#(>|^)[^<]*(?<!'.$left_Q.')'.$search_Q.'(?!'.$right_Q.')[^>]*(<|$)#isU', $your_string))
$your_string = preg_replace('#(^[^<]*|>[^<]*)(?<!'.$left_Q.')('.$search_Q.')(?!'.$right_Q.')([^>]*<|[^>]*$)#isU', '${1}'.$left.'${2}'.$right.'${3}', $your_string);
echo $your_string;
$variable = 'Afrikaans
Shqip - Albanian
Euskara - Basque';
How do I convert each new line to paragraph?
$variable should become:
<p>Afrikaans</p>
<p>Shqip - Albanian</p>
<p>Euskara - Basque</p>
Try this:
$variable = str_replace("\n", "</p>\n<p>", '<p>'.$variable.'</p>');
The following should do the trick :
$variable = '<p>' . str_replace("\n", "</p><p>", $variable) . '</p>';
Be careful, with the other proposals, some line breaks are not catch.
This function works on Windows, Linux or MacOS :
function nl2p($txt){
return str_replace(["\r\n", "\n\r", "\n", "\r"], '</p><p>', '<p>' . $txt . '</p>');
}
$array = explode("\n", $variable);
$newVariable = '<p>'.implode('</p><p>', $array).'</p>'
<?php
$variable = 'Afrikaans
Shqip - Albanian
Euskara - Basque';
$prep0 = str_replace(array("\r\n" , "\n\r") , "\n" , $variable);
$prep1 = str_replace("\r" , "\n" , $prep0);
$prep2 = preg_replace(array('/\n\s+/' , '/\s+\n/') , "\n" , trim($prep1));
$result = '<p>'.str_replace("\n", "</p>\n<p>", $prep2).'</p>';
echo $result;
/*
<p>Afrikaans</p>
<p>Shqip - Albanian</p>
<p>Euskara - Basque</p>
*/
?>
Explanation:
$prep0 and $prep1: Make sure each line ends with \n.
$prep2: Remove redundant whitespace. Keep linebreaks.
$result: Add p tags.
If you don't include $prep0, $prep1 and $prep2, $result will look like this:
<p>Afrikaans
</p>
<p>Shqip - Albanian
</p>
<p>Euskara - Basque</p>
Not very nice, I think.
Also, don't use preg_replace unless you have to. In most cases, str_replace is faster (at least according to my experience). See the comments below for more information.
Try:
$variable = 'Afrikaans
Shqip - Albanian
Euskara - Basque';
$result = preg_replace("/\r\n/", "<p>$1</p>", $variable);
echo $result;
I know this is a very old thread, but I want to highlight, that suggested solutions can have some issues in HTML world:
They do not check whether there is already a p tag around respective paragraph. This can result in extra paragraphs. At least some browsers will then show this as extra paragraphs, meaning <p>line1<p>line2</p>line3</p> will result in 3 paragraphs, which may not be the intention.
In fact, there is a bunch of tags, that are not expected inside of p, as per the spec of phrasing content. Or rather there is a limited set of tags, tha can be.
They will change new lines inside tags, where you want to preserve new lines as is. pre and textarea are the ones, where you could generally want that. code, samp, kbd and var are an example of other common values, but technically it can be any tag with white-space CSS property set to either pre, pre-wrap, pre-line or break-spaces.
They usually only check for \r\n or just \r or \n, while there are actually more symbols, that would mean new line, and they also have respective HTML entities, which can easily occur in HTML string.
To "combat" these flaws, at least, to an extent, I've just released a nl2tag library, which can also "convert" new lines to <li> items and has an "improved" nl2br logic (mostly for the sake of whitespace retention).
It's far from perfect (check the readme for limitations), but should cover you in case of relatively simple HTML string.