Automatically Double Space Text Area

Question

I have a text area that allows the user to input multiple lines of text. I would like to force everything in the text box to automatically be double spaced. I am using nl2br to output text and show the spacing.

Lets say the user types:

red
blue
green

I would like the nl2br function to output

red

blue

green

I would also need to be able to handle double spaces (i.e. if the user already puts in double spacing, I don't want more.

Any ideas on how to produce this? I would rather do it in the page that allows the user to enter the text if possible. Thanks!

Answer 1

Using str_replace() and PHP_EOL:

$str = 'red
blue
green';

$str = str_replace(PHP_EOL, '<br><br>', $str);
echo $str;

EDIT: Using regex:

$str = 'red

blue



green
blue';

$str = preg_replace(array('/(\r?\n)+/', '/\r?\n/'),array(PHP_EOL,'<br><br>'), $str);
echo $str;

Answer 2

$str = nl2br(str_replace(PHP_EOL, '<br><br>', $str));
echo $str;

Answer 3

$str = str_replace('<br />', '<br /><br />', nl2br($str));

This will make <br /> tags out of all line endings and afterwards double them.