Posted by Tom on 03/12/07 16:34

On Mar 12, 8:25 am, and...@blueyonder.com wrote:
> In article <1173696650.014897.36...@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>,
> jon.pul...@gmail.com says...
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Mar 12, 5:58 am, and...@blueyonder.com wrote:
> > > I'm having trouble working this out ...
>
> > > Is there a simple way to count how many lines are returned in
> > > $_POST['myTextArea']
>
> > > When I look at the $_POST all I see is one line yet there are three.
> > > I assume something is being interpreted differently depending on how I
> > > view it.
>
> > > Is there a simple funtion for this or can someone tell me how to work it
> > > out please?
>
> > > Thanks
>
> > > andy
>
> > Hey,
>
> > This should do the trick,
>
> > $lineCount = count( explode( "\n" , $_POST['test'] ) );
>
> > where 'test' is the nameof the textarea field
>
> clever!
> Thanks - that makes sense now I've seen it ;-)
> I'll give it a go.
>
> cheers
>
> andy- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

If you want to be precise, you should `trim` your result first to
check to see if any value was passed. `explode` will always return an
array of length 1, even if the string parameter is empty (or even
NULL):

<?php
$string = "Hello world" ;
echo count( explode( "\n" , $string ) ) ; // "1"
$string = "" ;
echo count( explode( "\n" , $string ) ) ; // "1", not sure if that's
what you need or not
?>

`trim` will also get rid of newlines at the end of a string -- I've
noticed that on Safari in particular, textareas seem to add newlines
regardless of where "Enter" or "Return" was hit.

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