replace \n with actual new line character code

Question

I'm pulling content from a DB that has been sanitized using mysql_real_escape_string. Accordingly the new line characters now appear as "\n". The issue is that this content is displayed to users inside a < pre > tag so I cannot replace \n with < br/> for instance.

I suppose I could replace \n with the actual utf8 character code before inserting the result inside the < pre>.

Can somoneone assist here? Not using mysql_real_escape_string isn't really an option due to security policy.

Thanks.

I'm a bit puzzled, normally your data should be returned unescaped. The way you describe it, it's as if the data went through mysql_real_escape_string() twice before being stored — R. Hill
– R. Hill, Commented Jul 16, 2010 at 11:34
It actually sounds like you over-sanitized the data by escaping it twice. If you put in mysql_real_escape_string("two\nlines"); there will be a real \n character in the database. If you get data out, there should be no need to replace \n back. If you keep it this way, expect problems with ' and " as well. — mvds
– mvds, Commented Jul 16, 2010 at 11:36
maybe you're a victim of the ludicrous "magic_quote" functionality in php - make sure that you disable it, it only confuses those who are aware of the concept of escaping. — mvds
– mvds, Commented Jul 16, 2010 at 11:40
Indeed it looks like the data was escaped twice. I'm using Zend_db and it seems that it's using mysql_real_escape_string by default. — Max Corbeau
– Max Corbeau, Commented Jul 19, 2010 at 8:33

Mark Baker · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-16 11:29:14Z

28

echo '<pre>'.str_replace('\n', "\n", $string).'</pre>';

answered Jul 16, 2010 at 11:29

Mark Baker

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2 Comments

Max Corbeau Over a year ago

this would work as a 'quick fix'. The root cause is the data being escaped twice

ᴍᴀᴛᴛ ʙᴀᴋᴇʀ Over a year ago

This didn't work until I used double quotes "\n" instead of single quotes '\n' for some reason.

Taryn · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-13 21:13:34Z

7

why not ...

echo str_replace('\\n', PHP_EOL, "few lines\nof text here,\nblah, blah! etc!");

edited Mar 13, 2012 at 21:13

Taryn

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answered Mar 13, 2012 at 18:20

Lou

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R. Hill · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-16 11:30:59Z

6

str_replace("\\n","\n",$data);

answered Jul 16, 2010 at 11:30

R. Hill

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symcbean · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-16 12:09:16Z

1

I'm pulling content from a DB that has been sanitized using mysql_real_escape_string. Accordingly the new line characters now appear as "\n"

If you've not done anything to the raw data pulled back from the database then the ptoblem is that it has been 'sanitized' twice when inserted.

C.

answered Jul 16, 2010 at 12:09

symcbean

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Nico · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-16 11:34:52Z

-2

This might help a bit:

echo('test\ntest'); shows as

test test

but echo("test\ntest"); shows as

test

answered Jul 16, 2010 at 11:34

Nico

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1 Comment

Mark Baker Over a year ago

echo('test\ntest'); should appear as test\ntest

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