string replace <br /> to \n gives double breaks

Question

Solution information:

The nl2br function does not replace \\n with <br /> as I had expected but inserts a <br /> before the \\n .

From php.net:

nl2br — Inserts HTML line breaks before all newlines in a string

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Original question:

I'm replacing <br /> elements with \\n in PHP, this is my input:

Top spot!<br />
<br />
123456789 123456789 123456789

This is my code:

$commenttext = str_replace("<br />", "\n", $reviewdata['comment']);

But my output is:

Top spot!



123456789 123456789 123456789

Is there something I'm missing with using str_replace? I'm getting double the breaks returned after using it.

Answer 1

Let me show you. Your code before replacement:

Top spot!<br />\n<br />\n123456789 123456789 123456789

Your code after replacement:

Top spot!\n\n\n\n123456789 123456789 123456789

As you can see <br /> was correctly replaced with new line.

Try to replace <br /> tags with the new lines first:

$commenttext = str_replace("<br />\n", "\n", $reviewdata['comment']);

Answer 2

<?php

$text = 'top spot!<br />
<br />
123456789 123456789 123456789';

echo str_replace("<br />\n","\n",$text);

?>

DEMO

OUTPUT

top spot! 123456789 123456789 123456789