new line function

hi, is there any function to replace \n to <br> that we can see the results in html source code (not in preview)? i tried nl2br, str_replace, and ereg_replace. but all of them work just in page preview. when i looked in page source, the strings remain the same. here i enclose strings i got in page source... original: this is the first line and this is the second this is the third using nl2br function: this is the first line<br \> and this is the second<br \> this is the third my expectation: this is the first line<br \>and this is the second<br \>this is the third i need this cause i'll send this string with javascript. if i used nl2br, i got message in javascript console like this: Error: unterminated string literal update("this is the first line<br \> :-( thanx -- ________________________ Dominus Tecum