Count lines in a posted string

Question

But it doesn't seems to be working:

$content = nl2br($_POST['text']);
preg_match_all("/(<br>)/", $content, $matches);

echo count($matches[0]) + 1;

It'll always output 1.

Is there any other solutions to count lines in a string?

Output $content, it might be converting the linebreaks to
Firebug doesn't show the actual markup, so don't trust it. — Chris Sobolewski, Oct 31 '11 at 15:31

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 31 '11 at 14:56

18

Found this in one of my old apps... Not sure where I got it from.

$lines_arr = preg_split('/\n|\r/',$str);
$num_newlines = count($lines_arr); 
echo $num_newlines;

*Edit - Actually, this probably won't work if your textarea is spitting out html.. check for <br> and <br/>

answered Oct 31 '11 at 14:56

K2xL

Thank you! It's working great. If someone will be looking for solution: I've just changed your reg. exp into: `preg_split('/(
)/', $str);`. – Cyclone Oct 31 '11 at 15:05
No problem. You might want to hit the green checkbox next to this answer so people know it's been answered. – K2xL Oct 31 '11 at 15:06
edited the answer to take into account of \r\n and \n\r otherwise, this is fantastic answer. I also needed this. – Kim Stacks Oct 04 '13 at 10:40
Hey, is there a reason for having `\r` in the regex? – Stranger Jul 04 '17 at 16:46
I am not sure if this is the best option when file is big, e.g. 250 MB – Tomasz Kuter May 01 '18 at 10:29

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 31 '11 at 15:00

11

You can try this:

$count = substr_count($_POST['text'], "\n") + 1;

or:

$count = count(explode("\n", $_POST['text']));

answered Oct 31 '11 at 15:00

Pastushenko Yuri

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 19 '13 at 20:33

6

count( explode(PHP_EOL, $str) );

answered Oct 19 '13 at 20:33

yckart

3 Answers3