Is there a way to not expand escape sequences?

**Markus** · Jun 25 '08, 09:44 PM

You could just remove them

Code:

echo str_replace('\n', ' ' $str);

Or am I missing the problem?

**Atli** · Jun 26 '08, 12:52 AM

You want it to show the escape characters... Like \" instead of "?

If so, try running it through the addslashes function before printing it.

**hanaa** · Jun 26 '08, 08:53 AM

(I am sorry if i was unclear.)
That would remove the '\n'. I want the '\n' to be printed as is.
It isnt just the escape sequence '\n'. Say, if the text that the user's entered contains '\n' or '\r' or '\w'(which is not an escape sequence), I want all the text to be echoed as is.
There's this textarea, where the user is supposed to enter some text which could contain words like '\none' (which cud contain escape sequences that are not to be interpreted). but i when i try to display the entered text on another page, all the escape sequences are being interpreted. But I want the text to be echoed exactly how the user wrote it.
Or do i have to use str_replace to replace all the escape sequences..? replace '\n' with '\\n' and likewise for all the other escape sequences?

Hanaa

**Atli** · Jun 26 '08, 09:26 AM

How are you printing the text. Could you show us the code?

PHP does not threat the \ character inside strings as and escape character unless it is being used from within a PHP script. So user input should not be parsed into their respective special characters by PHP.

Keep in mind tho, that if your user enters something like: "I am \not two lines", that exact text will be printed to the browser.
The browser, however, may very well convert the \n into a new-line char.

By using the addslashes function, you will in fact be converting that string into "I am \\not two lines", which your browser should parse into "\n" rather than a new-line char.

Edit.
Be careful tho. If the magic_quotes_gp c directive is enabled in your PHP installation, the addslashes function will automatically be invoked on all user input before you get it.
So if that is the case, calling it again will add extra backslashes.

**hanaa** · Jun 26 '08, 06:10 PM

Thanks Atli and markusn00b.
It just occured to me that i forgot to mention that this has to do with MySQL too. Just posting a text to display it on another page, is indeed echoing the exact text(which is what i want). But when i save it in a database, retrieve and echo it, the escape characters are being interpreted. Here's the code. This isnt the page that i made. In those that i made, i ve used the same page to perform all edit, delete, add functions, so its messy. So i wrote down this.

testa.php
[PHP]<?php
$conn=mysql_con nect('localhost ', 'root', 'password') or die(mysql_error ());
mysql_select_db ('testd') or die(mysql_error ());
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
$query="INSERT INTO tablename(quest ion) VALUES('".$_POS T['question']."')";
$request=mysql_ query($query) or die(mysql_error ());
header("locatio n:testb.php");
}
mysql_close($co nn);
?>

<html>
<head>
<title> Test </title>
</head>
<body>
<form action='testa.p hp' method='post'>
Enter text<br/>
<textarea name='question' rows='5' cols='60'></textarea>
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Go!'>
</form>
</body>
</html>[/PHP]

testb.php
[PHP]<html>

<head>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$conn=mysql_con nect('localhost ', 'root', 'password') or die(mysql_error ());
mysql_select_db ('testd');
$query="SELECT * FROM tablename";
$result=mysql_q uery($query);
while($row=mysq l_fetch_assoc($ result))
{
echo $row['question'];
echo"<br/>";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
[/PHP]

Eg.
I enter the followin text on the first page-
This is a \n bat.
And on the next page i see whats below
This is a bat.

Am i supposed to post this in the MySQL section?

**pbmods** · Jun 26 '08, 10:38 PM

Heya, Hanaa.

Try running the string through nl2br() before you display it.

E.g., [code=php]echo nl2br($row['question']);[/code]

**hanaa** · Jun 27 '08, 08:44 AM

No pbmods, I want none of the escape sequences to be interpreted. not just '\n', others such as '\t' etc.

**hanaa** · Jun 27 '08, 04:49 PM

And, I tried using addslashes() too. The outputs the same even then. The escape characters are being expanded.

**hanaa** · Jun 27 '08, 05:15 PM

Thankyou everyone
It works now. I had to turn magic_quotes_gp c on in php.ini. (PHP 5)

Hanaa

**Markus** · Jun 28 '08, 08:57 AM

Originally posted by hanaa

Thankyou everyone
It works now. I had to turn magic_quotes_gp c on in php.ini. (PHP 5)

Hanaa

Great news, Hanaa!

See you around.

Is there a way to not expand escape sequences?

Is there a way to not expand escape sequences?

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