Does \n work in php?

For some strange reason, inserting echo "\n"; and other scape sequence characters are not working for me, that's why I am just using <br /> instead.

The images of the results of examples in books and other documentations seems just alright. I'm currently using XAMPP and already used WAMPP with the same actual result. Why is that?

Edit:

It seems that I cannot understand the concept after comparing your answers with this: PHP Linefeeds (\n) Not Working

Edit:

Sorry I didn't realized that the link above is referring to a php code writing to a file. I just wonder why I have these few php sample programs that uses \n even though it outputs in a webpage. Thanks everyone.

asked Sep 13, 2012 at 16:24

4

When you run a PHP script in a browser, it will be rendered as HTML by default. If the books you’re using show otherwise, then either the code or the illustration is inaccurate. You can use “view source” to view what was sent to the browser and you’ll see that your line feeds are present.

<?php
echo "Line 1\nLine 2";
?>

This will render in your browser as:

Line 1 Line 2

If you need to send plain text to your browser, you can use something like:

<?php
header('Content-type: text/plain');
echo "Line 1\nLine 2";
?>

This will output:

Line 1
Line 2

PHP Linefeeds (\n) Not Working is referring to sending output to a file rather than the browser.

answered Sep 13, 2012 at 16:49

HerbertHerbert

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4

You should be looking for nl2br(). This will add line breaks (<br>) to your output which will be rendered by the browser; newlines are not.

answered Sep 13, 2012 at 16:26

BojanglesBojangles

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The echo "\n" is probably working, just not the way you expect it to.

That command will insert a new line character. From the sounds of it, you're using a browser to view your output. Note that if you wrote an HTML file that had a body contents that looked like:

<p>This
is
a
test </p>

The browser rendering would not include the new lines, and would instead just show "This is a test"

If you want to see the newlines, you could view source, and you'll see that the source code includes the new lines.

The rule of thumb is that if you need new lines in a browser, you need to use HTML (e.g. <br />), while if you want it in plain text, you can use the \n

answered Sep 13, 2012 at 16:40

ernieernie

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<br /> is the HTML Tag for new line, whereas "\n" is to output a new line (for real).

The browser doesn't output a new line each time the HTML file goes to the next line.

answered Sep 13, 2012 at 16:25

BgiBgi

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You can use the nl2br function to convert \n to <br>

As said before, HTML does not render \n as new line. It only recognizes the <br> html tag

Stano

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answered Sep 13, 2012 at 16:27

If you are working with HTML (viewing the result in browser for example) you have to use the HTML way of linebreaks which is: <br>

answered May 5, 2017 at 8:19

Hasan A YousefHasan A Yousef

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/n only works if it is used as a simple text but here as we code in a html doc it takes it as a HTML text hence you can use </br> tag instead.

answered Jan 23, 2020 at 7:18

Kunal RautKunal Raut

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PHP outputs on the browser and browser only render output in HTML, any other output format will be ignored by the browser.

If you want browser to keep your standard output format as it is, you should enclose your output under HTML's <pre> tag. It preserves the formatting:

echo "<pre>";
echo "This is first line\nThis is new line";
echo "</pre>";

This will be rendered as

This is first line
This is new line

Alternatively, you can mention content type to be plain text in the header:

header('Content-type: text/plain');
echo "This is first line\nThis is new line";

This will tell the browser to render the output as plain text. And the browser will encolse the output automatically in <pre> tag.

answered Aug 4 at 8:19

solution is echo nl2br or=> <br>

answered May 25 at 13:53

1

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