Question

Javascript: New Line Character in TextArea

Asked by: gkinu

I have a text area form object. I enter details into it and create a number of lines of text by pressing "Enter".

In an onclick event for one of the buttons i want all the new line characters in the text area to be replaced by another set of characters say "ppp". I use the replace function as follows

NameOfTextArea.value.replace("\n","***");

When i output the result in an alert message, it show it only works for the first line.

E.g.

If I type the following in the textarea:-

aaa
bbb
ccc


The output in the alert message in firefox is:
aaa***bbb
ccc

AND as for IE it is

aaa
***bbb
ccc


But I would expect output like aaa***bbb***ccc

Please advise ...

function cc()
   {
           //Name of text area=reasons
	   var rrr = document.forms["form1"].reasons.value.replace("\n","***");
	   alert(rrr);
   }

                                  
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Asked On
2009-08-13 at 05:41:01ID24649478
Topic

JavaScript

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: Tomarse111Posted on 2009-08-13 at 05:46:08ID: 25087522

you nearly had it. You just need to use a small regex to make sure all instances are replaced

<script type="text/javascript">
function cc()
   {
           //Name of text area=reasons
		   var re = new RegExp ('\n', 'gi');
           var rrr = document.forms["form1"].reasons.value.replace(re,"***");
           alert(rrr);
   }
</script>
<form name="form1">
<textarea id="reasons" name="reasons"></textarea>
<input type="button" onclick="cc()" />
</form>

                                              
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by: gkinuPosted on 2009-08-13 at 05:51:27ID: 31615277

Thanks. This worked. That was fast!

 

by: JohnSixkillerPosted on 2009-08-13 at 05:58:52ID: 25087645

A little correction, if you use it ( tested it in IE8) on
a
b
c
you wil get:
a
***b
***c

The complete line-break (enter) is made of two characters "carriage return" and "new-line" (\r \n)
ASCII 13,10

use: value.replace(/\r\n/g,"***"); // "/g" means global so all "enters" will be replaced

 

by: Tomarse111Posted on 2009-08-13 at 06:01:45ID: 25087673

That will then not work in Firefox as firefox does not use \r within its carriage return in textareas ...

 

by: Tomarse111Posted on 2009-08-13 at 06:07:34ID: 25087731

But i see your point so we just need to cater for both:

This will work for both ie and ff

<script type="text/javascript">
function cc()
   {
           //Name of text area=reasons
		   var re = new RegExp ('\r?\n', 'gi');
           var rrr = document.forms["form1"].reasons.value.replace(re,"***");
           alert(rrr);
   }
</script>
<form name="form1">
<textarea id="reasons" name="reasons"></textarea>
<input type="button" onclick="cc()" />
</form>

                                              
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by: JohnSixkillerPosted on 2009-08-13 at 06:31:20ID: 25087976

Indeed.  I Googled a bit and it seems that three combinations are valid in HTML. \r\n , \r , \n.
PS: new line (\n) character is called Line Feed (LF)

 

by: gkinuPosted on 2009-08-13 at 06:49:13ID: 25088156

Thank you both Tomarse111 and JohnSixkiller. Has been an eye opener for me.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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