PHP nl2br() problem

[zachsformacs95]

I have a field in a mySQL database called "bio." You edit that field with a <textarea>. I have been using the following to add line breaks:

$bio = ($_GET['bio']) ? $_GET['bio'] : $_POST['bio'];
$bio = nl2br($bio);

It works fine. However, if they edit this bio, I apply the function again (in case they add any new line breaks). The problem is that it also adds new <br />s to the line breaks that have already been dealt with... So:

text<br />
text

may become:

text<br /><br />
text<br />
text

Is there a way around this? My first thought is to test if there are 2 or more consecutive <br />s, but there are times when I want there to be 2 consecutive <br />s (as if starting a new paragraph). Perhaps a way to remove the <br />s before applying the function again? Thanks in advance.

 

[zachsformacs95]

UPDATE: Nevermind - instead of altering the database field, I just left it as is and applied the function only when displaying it - works fine now.

 

[MarkR]

UPDATE: Nevermind - instead of altering the database field, I just left it as is and applied the function only when displaying it - works fine now.

That's the best way to do it, if you ever need an alternative though look at the PRE tag.