Question

All,

I am trying to build a completely UTF-8 web app which allows users to submit text content.

If I store a text copied on a web form (textarea) into a PHP string $str, and then print this variable, the text is obviously printed without the new lines, carriage returns, or tabs.

Is there a way for me to view those special characters when I print the text?

For example, if the user were to enter:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both

I’d like to be able to print:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,\nAnd sorry I could not travel both

Answer 1

Either echo them into a textarea, or surround them with <pre> tags. Otherwise, massage the data with nl2br and a custom one for handling tabs:

function tab2nbsp($str)
{
    return str_replace("\t", '    ', $str); 
}