Textarea and button elements are commonly used in HTML forms to allow users to enter or submit text. However, sometimes you may want to display multiline text or line breaks in these elements, which can be tricky. Find out how to handle multiline text and line breaks in textarea and button elements in HTML using different methods and attributes.
The textarea element is a form control that allows users to enter and edit multiple lines of text. By default, the text wraps to fit the width and height of the element, which can be specified by the cols and rows attributes. However, you can also use the wrap attribute to control how the text is sent to the server. The wrap attribute can have two values: soft or hard. Soft means that the text is wrapped only for display purposes, but the line breaks are not preserved when the form is submitted. Hard means that the text is wrapped and the line breaks are inserted as newline characters (\n) when the form is submitted. For example,
<textarea name="message" wrap="hard" cols="20" rows="5"></textarea>
will create a textarea element that wraps and preserves line breaks.
The textarea element is a form control that allows users to enter and edit multiple lines of text. By default, the text wraps to fit the width and height of the element, which can be specified by the cols and rows attributes. However, you can also use the wrap attribute to control how the text is sent to the server. The wrap attribute can have two values: soft or hard. Soft means that the text is wrapped only for display purposes, but the line breaks are not preserved when the form is submitted. Hard means that the text is wrapped and the line breaks are inserted as newline characters (\n) when the form is submitted. For example,
The textarea element is a form control that allows users to enter and edit multiple lines of text. By default, the text wraps to fit the width and height of the element, which can be specified by the cols and rows attributes. However, you can also use the wrap attribute to control how the text is sent to the server. The wrap attribute can have two values: soft or hard. Soft means that the text is wrapped only for display purposes, but the line breaks are not preserved when the form is submitted. Hard means that the text is wrapped and the line breaks are inserted as newline characters (\n) when the form is submitted. For example,
The button element is a form control that allows users to trigger an action, such as submitting a form or opening a dialog. By default, the text content of the button element is displayed on a single line, regardless of the width or height of the element. However, you can use the white-space CSS property to change how the text is handled. The white-space property can have several values, but the most relevant ones for button elements are normal, pre, and pre-wrap. Normal means that the text is collapsed and wrapped according to the available space. Pre means that the text is preserved as it is, including whitespace and line breaks. Pre-wrap means that the text is preserved but also wrapped according to the available space. For example,
<button style="white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a multiline<br>button element</button>
will create a button element that displays multiline text and line breaks.
the line break tag is a single tag and not a pair so the correct syntax is <br />, which also terminates the tag, and no longer <br> although still accepted.
The line break element (<br>) is a self-closing tag that creates a line break in the text. You can use it in both textarea and button elements to insert manual line breaks where you want them. However, keep in mind that the line break element only affects the display of the text, not how it is sent to the server. For example,
<textarea name="message">This is a line<br>with a break</textarea>
will show a line break in the textarea element, but the value of the message parameter will be "This is a linewith a break" when the form is submitted. To preserve the line break in the server-side, you need to use the wrap attribute with the hard value or insert a newline character (\n) in the text.
the line break tag is a single tag and not a pair so the correct syntax is <br />, which also terminates the tag, and no longer <br> although still accepted.
The <br /> tag is a part of the xhtml 1.0 specification (https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_2) and while most browsers allow it, the proper html 5 format is <br> as dictated by the html 5 specification (https://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-html5-author-20110809/the-br-element.html). The other place that a <br /> tag is readily accepted these days is in JSX as it uses an XML-like approach to parsing, and the end slash would be needed by the compiler.
Escape sequences are special characters that represent non-printable characters, such as newline (\n), tab (\t), or backslash (\\). You can use escape sequences in both textarea and button elements to insert non-printable characters in the text. However, escape sequences are only interpreted by JavaScript, not by HTML. Therefore, you need to use the value attribute of the textarea or button element to set the text content with escape sequences. For example,
<textarea name="message" value="This is a line\nwith a break"></textarea>
will create a textarea element that shows a line break in the text and also preserves it when the form is submitted.
HTML entities are special codes that represent characters that have a special meaning in HTML, such as < (<), > (>), or " ("). You can use HTML entities in both textarea and button elements to insert characters that would otherwise be interpreted as HTML tags or attributes. For example,
<textarea name="message"><p>This is a paragraph</p></textarea>
will create a textarea element that shows the text "<p>This is a paragraph</p>" instead of rendering it as HTML. However, HTML entities are only interpreted by HTML, not by JavaScript. Therefore, you need to use the innerHTML property of the textarea or button element to get or set the text content with HTML entities. For example,
document.getElementById("message").innerHTML = "<p>This is a paragraph</p>"
will set the text content of the textarea element with id "message" to "<p>This is a paragraph</p>".