note 110026 added to filter.filters.sanitize

This should help with most simple "textarea" fields in post forms. Removing user html tags while maintaining text formatting such as newlines and carriage returns involves using the FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING filter ID with the flag !FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_LOW. The formatting text (the low ASCII values under decimal 32) are encoded because of the included FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_LOW flag, but you are now preventing these from being removed. When you want to display the value on the page back in its intended format, use nl2br() so the encoded newlines are formatted properly on the page. This example cleans $_POST data from a textarea field with the name "user_tasks" on a previous html form, stripping tags but maintaining formatting (at least for newlines): <?php $postfilter = array( 'user_tasks' => array('filter' => FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING, 'flags' => !FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_LOW), // removes tags. formatting code is encoded -- add nl2br() when displaying ); $revised_post_array = filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, $postfilter); // must be referenced via a variable which is now an array that takes the place of $_POST[] echo (nl2br($revised_post_array['user_tasks'])); // here we use nl2br() for the displayed value, for the ['user_tasks'] array value so that the newlines are formatted ?> ---- Server IP: 69.147.83.197 Probable Submitter: 71.172.140.197 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/filter.filters.sanitize.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/110026 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/110026/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/110026/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/110026/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/110026/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/110026/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/110026/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/110026 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/110026 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php