Remove white-spacing but keep paragraphs

Question

I'm trying to write a code which removes all white spaces but keeps paragraphs instead.

I have this code:

$replaced = preg_replace('/\s\s+/', ' ', "1st.     line
2nd.      line goes here

3rd. line   goes   there");

echo $replaced;

As an output I get:

1st. line 2nd. line goes here 3rd. line goes there

But it should be like this:

1st. line 
2nd. line goes here 

3rd. line goes there

nl2br() function isn't a good solution for me, because I need to put this output in a textarea.

Answer 1

Browsers will not show \n as linebreaks on a page. Either view the source of the page to make sure the output is as desired or place your output inside <pre></pre> or <textarea></textarea>:

$replaced = preg_replace('/\s\s+/', ' ', "1st.     line
2nd.      line goes here

3rd. line   goes   there");

echo "<textarea>{$replaced}</textarea>";

Answer 2

/[\\t\' \']+/ this will remove tabs and spaces