ereg_replace: How to replace three or more \n with \n\n?

[chromis]

Hi,

I'm trying to remove line breaks from a user-inputted string and trying to do this using ereg_replace and a regular expression but struggling, hope someone can help!

I would like to make all triple or more consecutive occurences of \n, \n\n. So if the pattern found \n\n\n or \n\n\n\n and so on it would replace with \n\n.

My plan is then to split() the string into an array using the double linebreak and then output each array member enclosed in <p> elements. So what i would end up with is a neat list of paragraphs.

Here is the code I have so far:

ereg_replace("\n{3,}","\n\n",$inputText);

Having read up on regexp. the code above should find 3 or more consecutive occurences of \n and replace it with \n\n. Sadly it doesn't, could anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance,

Chromis

[Atli]

Try using the preg_replace function instead.

I'm not sure exactly what the difference between the POISIX expressions (ereg) and the PCRE expressions (preg) are, but what you posted looks like it may be PCRE.

You may also have to add start and end tags to the expression, like:

/\n{3,0}/

[chromis]

Hi Atli,

Thanks for the reply, I didn't know there were different types of regular expression, I'll give that a go and see what I get.

Thanks again,

Chromis

[chromis]

Hi again,

Ok with your help i've figured it out, a bit of trial and error was necessary!

The following is my input string:

Enter text here
 
paragraph1
 
 
paragraph1 
 
 
 
paragraph1

After expression: preg_replace("/[\r\n]{2,}/"," break\n",$inputText);

Enter text here break
paragraph1 break
paragraph1 break
paragraph1

The key was using the \r\n characters (im on windows) in a character range. I probably should have said the input was from a text box.

I'm writing my first class to format input copy and pasted from a word doc (has lots of incorrect characters and in most cases too many line breaks).

Here is my code so far (any feedback is welcome):

[PHP]
class FormatForWeb {

public $inputText;
public $outputText;

// Recieve input text
public function __construct($inputText) {
$this->inputText = $inputText;
}
// Output text as HTML paragraphs
public function paragraphFormat() {
// Replace triple or more occurences of \r\n with just two.
$inputText = preg_replace("/[\r\n]{2,}/","\n\n",$this->inputText);

/* Break into paragraphs */
$inputText = split("\n\n",$inputText);
foreach($inputText as $para) {
if($para!="") $this->outputText = $this->outputText . "<p>" . $para . "</p>\n";
}
return $this->outputText;
}
[/PHP]

Thanks,

Chromis

[pbmods]

Heya, Chromis.

Try using the constant PHP_EOL, which gets set based on your operating system's settings. Should you ever port your code to a Linux server, you won't have to change your code.

(By the way, PHP_EOL appears on the Zend PHP 5 Certification Exam)

[chromis]

Ah right thanks, I'll remember that!

[chromis]

Ah right thanks, I'll remember that!