Hello all,

This may be more of a mysql question but anyway...

I have a website thats content is generated from a mysql database. The data is stored in a longtext column type.

The problem I have is that when I retrieve this data any line breaks or paragraphing disappear and the text appears as one long block of text.

Any ideas...

Well, first, you need to input the data via <textarea> type input fields. That'll presevre the formatting (but I assume you're doing that).

Next, look into using preg_replace (http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-replace.php) and using a list of the control codes (e.g. /t for tab, /r or /n for newline - or both on WierdOS, of course!) and replaceing them with <br>s, sets of &nbsp;'s, etc..

Here's a reply I wrote ages ago, to this effect. That 'rich_text_format' function might be something like what you need:
http://p2p.wrox.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_...ch_text_format

I think the following method is easier:
1. Input the data in a TextArea
2. when storing data to mysql use:
   nl2br($yourinput)

3. simply retrieve data from mysql. you will get data with line break.

hope this will work


Best Regard:
Md. Zakir Hossain (Raju)
www.rubd.net
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