Member Avatar for claritydigital

Hi all,
Im learning PHP & SQL very quickly, but still have issues with counting this, and incrementing that.... so if someone could help, you'd be(proverbially) teaching a man(woman in my case..lol) to fish....

Im constructing a form which in part, allows user to input instructions.
I would like the users input to increment with numbering, each time user hits "enter" in the textarea to make a paragraph, so that the output looks something like:

step 1. blah blip blah
<user hits "enter", makes paragraph>
step 2. blah blur blah
<user hits "enter", makes paragraph>

The best example I have is on the website recipezaar.com...

so for example:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Crock-Pot-Chicken-W-Black-Beans-and-Cream-Cheeseyum-89204

which is just an awesome site btw for any of u who like to cook...

If you look to how their "Directions" on recipe pages increment, you will see what I am trying to explain, god help my explainatory abilities. The way in which i explained i would like input incremented, is how they increment it on this website.... user presses "enter"..input is incremented..

If anyone could give me an idea on how I could implement this....very thankful, i would be...

Cheers! Clarity

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by somedude3488

Recommended Answers

All 7 Replies

Member Avatar for somedude3488

are you talking about when you output the data or when they are typing it? i am confused.

Member Avatar for claritydigital

lol.....sry, i mean...when the data is being output....

Member Avatar for nav33n

Pretty simple. Check this example.

<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
	$string = nl2br($_POST['textarea']);
	echo $string."<br />";
	echo substr_count($string, "<br />");
}
?>
<html>
<body>
<form method='POST'>
<textarea rows="30" cols="30" name='textarea'>
</textarea>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>

I am using nl2br function to convert newline to <br />. Then I am counting how many <br />'s are present in the sting. This would give the count of the "Enter" pressed by the user.
Cheers!

Member Avatar for somedude3488

on input of the data, you need to replace the newlines "\r\n" with a replaceable string. i have had problems with newlines being forgotten when they are put into the database.
ex.

$text = preg_replace( "/(\r\n)/","|NL|",$_POST['text'] ); //where $_POST['text'] is the name of the textarea

then on output, explode the data.
ex.

$text = explode( '|NL|',$row['text'] ); //$row['text'] is from the db
$i = 1;
foreach( $text as $txt ) {
  echo "{$i} - {$txt}<br />";
  $i++;
}

like that? how i would do it

Member Avatar for claritydigital

OK, wonderful... thanks for both answers:)
But i dont think i have explained this correctly...
Firstly:
When the input is entered via the textarea, each step a user types is done like this:

Recipe Directions:
Take your eggs, and whisk
<user hits "enter" and makes new line>
Add eggs to flour mix
<user hits "enter" and makes new line>
Beat until lumps are gone.

So i think kkeith29, your answer would solve that, replacing the newlines "\r\n" with a replaceable string and using foreach.

secondly:

Then I need the data to output with numbering. So as per my example, i want it to output as:



Recipe Directions:
1. Take your eggs & milk, and whisk
2. Add eggs & milk mix to flour mix
3. Beat until lumps are gone.

Each time user creates new line, i want it to increment, & number each line. Hope that makes more sense.

Member Avatar for claritydigital

then on output, explode the data.

Oops, I didnt see that before I replied... I guess that answers my problem..

Thank you....

Member Avatar for somedude3488

i think my example will do that. thats what the $i in the foreach is for.

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