PHP

HOW TO USE THE nl2br() FUNCTION IN PHP

The nl2br() function places a HTML line break (<br />) in front of every new line (\n) character or new line it encounters.

The general format is:

nl2br(string);

Example 1: This string has the new line character (\n) clearly shown.

$string="Hello\nMy name\nis\nJohn";

$new_string=nl2br($string);

echo $new_string;

The above outputs:

Hello
My name
is
John

The HTML code (look at the page source in your browser) looks like:

Hello<br />
My name<br />
is<br />
John

Example 2: This string is over a few new lines.

$string="Hello
My name
is
John";

$new_string=nl2br($string);

echo $new_string;

The above outputs:

Hello
My name
is
John

The HTML code (look at the page source in your browser) looks like:

Hello<br />
My name<br />
is<br />
John

The same results are achieved with Example 1 and 2 irrespective whether the newline character(\n) is shown or whether the string is over a few new lines.