JavaScript string with new line - but not using \n

Question

I have a string that has new lines in. I am wanting to convert these to HTML
s, but I\'m having a hard time detecting them.

Imagine a JavaScri

Answer 1

The reason it is not working is because javascript strings must be terminated before the next newline character (not a \n obviously). The reason \n exists is to allow developers an easy way to put the newline character (ASCII: 10) into their strings.

When you have a string which looks like this:

//Note lack of terminating double quote
var foo = "Bob 

Your code will have a syntax error at that point and cease to run.

If you wish to have a string which spans multiple lines, you may insert a backslash character '\' just before you terminate the line, like so:

//Perfectly valid code
var foo = "Bob \
is \
cool.";

However that string will not contain \n characters in the positions where the string was broken into separate lines. The only way to insert a newline into a string is to insert a character with a value of 10, the easiest way of which is the \n escape character.

var foo = "Bob\nis\ncool.";

Answer 2

you can use the following function:

  function nl2br (str, is_xhtml) {
     var breakTag = (is_xhtml || typeof is_xhtml === 'undefined') ? '<br />' : '<br>';
     return (str + '').replace(/([^>\r\n]?)(\r\n|\n\r|\r|\n)/g, '$1' + breakTag + '$2');
  } 

like so:

var mystr="line\nanother line\nanother line";
mystr=nl2br(mystr);
alert(mystr);

this should alert line<br>another line<br>another line

the source of the function is from here: http://phpjs.org/functions/nl2br:480

this imitates the nl2br function in php...