Line break not working when writing to text file in PHP

Question

I have the following test script:

<?php

$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = "Floppy Jalopy\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "Pointy Pinto\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

?>

when run however and opened usign Notepad, the data is returned in a single line without breaks as:

Floppy Jalopy(crazy box)Pointy Pinto(crazy box)

where i cant find the appropriate character for 'crazy box' but its a REALLY crazy box. WHAT GIVES!

Answer 1

If you want to open the file in Windows notepad, you must use Windows line breaks: \r\n

Answer 2

It is best to use PHP_EOL. This is cross-platform, so it automatically chooses the correct newline character(s) for the platform PHP is currently running on.

$stringData = "Floppy Jalopy" . PHP_EOL;

PHP Constants

Answer 3

Your code runs fine.

Use Notepad2 or Notepad++ if you're working on Windows. The built-in Notepad is unable to cope with Unix-style line endings.

Answer 4

. PHP_EOL; will work universally