PHP/HTML display hidden characters

Question

So, I have a bunch of code that I\'m pulling from a column in MySQL. This code includes hidden characters, such as \"\\t\" and \"\\n\".

I\'m trying to get that raw c

Answer 1

Add shlashes and preserve newline ;)

// Simple example: replace all newlines with their character equivalent
// AND preserve formating (the newline)
$value = str_replace("\n", "\\n\n", $value);
$value = str_replace("\t", "\\t\t", $value);
echo nl2br(htmlentities($value)); // for HTML as output, with 
 for newlines
echo "
" . $value . "
"; // for raw, preformated output

if you have

$value = "Hi\t\n there";

the result is

hi\t    \n

 there

for the html output line.