character that represents new line across all platforms in JavaScript

Question

specs

I am working on Linux Mint 14. I started on JavaScript recently and I tried to do some output formatting(printing random numbers, one per line) and as usual used \n. But this does not seem to work.

On both the chromium web browser and mozilla firefox, only a space shows up.

code

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE> GENERATE RANDOM NUMBERS AND PRINT THEM </TITLE>

<BODY>

<div id='container'>

<button onclick='startPrinting()'>Generate random numbers </button>

</div>

</BODY>

</HTML>

</HEAD>

<script>

function startPrinting()
{

var b = document.getElementById('container');

//b.innerHTML += Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000);

b.innerHTML += '<br>The following are some random numbers.<br>';

for(var i =1;i<10;i++)
{

b.innerHTML += '\n';

b.innerHTML += i + '.' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000);

}

}

</script>

I tried <br> and this worked well. But now I have many files where I have \n.

So is there a way that I can tell the script to replace all occurences of \n with <br>?

If possible please give an answer that will ensure that i have to add only a few lines of code to my existing files.

(I am looking for something like #define in C++)

please help me resolve this issue.

Your issue is not that `'\n'` isn't a newline, it's that when *rendering HTML* all whitespace is treated the same (as spaces). — jamesdlin, May 29 '13 at 10:35

Henridv · Answer 1 · 2013-05-29T10:46:41.213

0

You can do it inside a pre tag, which expects pre-formatted text and will treat \n as a newline:

<pre id="container">
    1
    2
    3
<pre>

Will ouput:

1
2
3

You can try this out here on JsFiddle

edited May 29 '13 at 10:46

answered May 29 '13 at 10:16

Henridv

766
12
23

well I don't have pre-formatted text.... Can you help me with the JS output that I have? – IcyFlame May 29 '13 at 10:18
@IcyFlame: well just change the `div` to `pre` and use `\n` as newline. – Henridv May 29 '13 at 10:35
@IcyFlame: Why can't you just surround your generated text with `
```
` ... `
```
` tags?
– jamesdlin May 29 '13 at 10:36
@IcyFlame: Check out the JsFiddle I made: http://jsfiddle.net/zULEB/1/. Why the downvote btw? – Henridv May 29 '13 at 10:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 29 '13 at 10:29

IF I have understood the question correctly, you need a list of numbers, vertically ?

If so then Its as simple as below.

function startPrinting()
    {

    var b = document.getElementById('container');

    var nums =[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] 

    var html =[]
    html.push("<ul>")
    for(var i =1;i<nums .length;i++)
    {

    html.push("<li>"+nums[i] +"</li>"); 

    }
    html.push("</ul>")
    b.innerHTML =html.join("");
    }

character that represents new line across all platforms in JavaScript

2 Answers2