Question

Hi I am using the following code to insdert data into mysql table:

    $sql="INSERT INTO DB (spanish, english)
VALUES
('$_POST[spanish]','$_POST[english]')";

than here is the input form:

 <form action="insert.php" method="post">
  <p>bulgarian text:</p>
  <p>
  <textarea type="textarea" cols="45" rows="5" name="bulgarian"></textarea>
  </p>
  <p>
  english text:</p>
  <p>
    <textarea type="textarea" cols="45" rows="5" name="english"></textarea>
</p>
  <p>
    <input type="submit">
  </p>
</form>

and this is the display procedure:

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

  echo "<td>" . $row['english'] . "</td>";
}

my problem now is once I put the text inside the database , and than once I display it it is displayed without any formatting. I would like to know how to make it to be displayed the way it is entered inside the text area with all the formatting and the new lines

thanks.

Answer 1

Any data put into a <textarea> is in plain text. When you put that data in a HTML-formatted page, the browser will “collapse” the whitespace.

There are two options:

1. Surround your date with <pre> and </pre>, so the formatting
   stays intact.
2. Use a function like nl2br to create (rudimentary) HTML.