PHP line break br with ENT_QUOTES

Question

Is it possible to use ENT_QUOTES and still use any method to break the line?

  $title = htmlentities($_REQUEST['title'], ENT_QUOTES);

When i input in the field for example:

<input type="text" value="Teacher: Don't cheat at the exam<br /> 1. Rule<br /> 2. Rule<br /> 3. Rule">

And it normally must look like this:

Teacher: Don't cheat at the exam
1. Rule
2. Rule
3. Rule

But i get this:

Teacher: Don't cheat at the exam<br /> 1. Rule<br /> 2. Rule<br /> 3. Rule

Can anyone help me out?

Answer 1

The very essence of htmlentities() is converting certain characters to HTML entities, and this includes < which becomes < and > which becomes > . The ENT_QUOTES is not relevant here.

So if you are using htmlentities() to filter your input (not sure you should, also you should probably specify $_POST etc.), you should output it with the opposite function if you want HTML to work:

Example:

$title = htmlentities($_POST['title']);
...
echo html_entity_decode($title); // outputs proper HTML

But devoid of more context, this example is meaningless and there is almost certainly a better way to do this in your project.