[php] Why is textarea filled with mysterious white spaces?

I have a simple text area in a form like this:

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink">
    <?php if($siteLink_val) echo $siteLink_val; ?> 
</textarea>

I keep getting extra white space in this textarea. When I tab into it my cursor is like in the middle of the textarea and not in the beginning? What is the explanation?

Another work around would be to use javascript:

//jquery
$('textarea#someid').html($('textarea#someid').html().trim());

//without jquery
document.getElementById('someid').innerHTML = document.getElementById('someid').innerHTML.trim();

This is what I did. Removing white-spaces and line-breaks in the code makes the line too long.

If you still like to use indentation, do it after opening the <?php tag, like so:

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink"><?php // <--- newline
    if($siteLink_val) echo $siteLink_val; // <--- indented, newline
?></textarea>

Please make sure there is no linebreak or space after , it's to make sure there is no whitespace or tab, just copy and paste this code :) I had fix it for you

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink"><?php if($siteLink_val) echo trim($siteLink_val);?></textarea>

In short: <textarea> should be closed immediately on the same line where it started.

General Practice: this will add-up line-breaks and spaces used for indentation in the code.

<textarea id="sitelink" name="sitelink">
</textarea>

Correct Practice

<textarea id="sitelink" name="sitelink"></textarea>

Open (and close!) your PHP tags right after, and before, your textarea tags:

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink"><?php
  if($siteLink_val) echo $siteLink_val;
?></textarea>

Basically it should be

<textarea>something here with no spaces in the begining</textarea>

If there are some predefined spaces lets say due to code formatting like below

<textarea>.......
....some_variable
</textarea>

The spaces shown by dots keeps on adding on each submit.

Furthermore: the textarea tag shows spaces for new lines, tabs, etc, in multiline code.

One solution that has worked for me is adding the style white-space: normal; to the textarea because at times it is not feasible to eliminate all the whitespace (for example when you want your code to abide to your coding guidelines which requires adding tabs, whitespaces and line breaks)

Please note that the default for textarea, at least in chrome is: white-space: pre-wrap;

Also, when you say that the cursor is in the "middle" of the textarea, it makes me think you could also either have extra padding or text-align: center defined somewhere in your CSS.

Make sure first that your $siteLink_val isn't returning white space as a value. The <textarea> element by default has an empty value so if the variable you're echo'ing for some reason has spaces, there's your problem right off the bat.

To make the code the absolute cleanest, I would suggest you could do something like this, allowing for some more flexibility later. I've made a function that returns either a NULL if the variable isn't present (what you seem to be aiming for in the original post) and the absolute value otherwise. Once you've made sure of your variable's contents, try this:

function build_siteLink_val() {
     if ( $siteLink_val ) {
          return $siteLink_val;
     }

     else {
          return "";
     }
}

$output_siteLink_val = build_siteLink_val();

And the following code in your textarea would now read:

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink"><?=$output_siteLink_val?></textarea>

This is assuming your PHP install is configured for short-hand variable calls, as seen in the shortened "<?=?>" tags. If you cannot output this way, remember to preface your PHP code with "<?php" and close with "?>".

Avoid line breaks between <textarea>'s because it can create the potential of erroneous characters.

Also, check your CSS to make sure there isn't a padding rule pushing text inward.

Also, you specify a cols and rows value on the textarea, and then style a width and height. These rules are counter-productive, and will result in inconsistent visuals. Stick with either defining the size through style (I recommend giving the element a class) or the rows/cols.

keep textarea code with no additional white spaces inside

moreover if you see extra blank lines there is solution in meta language:

<textarea>
for line in lines:
echo line.replace('\n','\r')
endfor
</textarea>

it will print lines without additional blank lines of course it depends if your lines ending with '\n', '\r\n' or '' - please adapt

<textarea style="width:350px; 
 height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink"
 ><?php if($siteLink_val) echo $siteLink_val; ?></textarea> 

Moving ...> down works for me.

To make it look a bit cleaner, consider using the ternary operator:

<textarea><?=( $siteLink_val ? $siteLink_val : '' );?></textarea>

I got the same problem, and the solution is very simple: don't start a new line! Although some of the previous answers can solve the problem, the idea is not stated clearly. The important understanding is, to get rid of the unintended spaces, never start a new line just after your start tag.

The following way is WRONG and will leave a lot of unwanted spaces before your text content:

 <textarea>
    text content // start with a new line will leave a lot of unwanted spaces
 </textarea>

The RIGHT WAY to do it is:

 <textarea>text content //put text content right after your start tag, no new line
 </textarea>

Well, everything between <textarea> and </textarea> is used as the default value for your textarea box. There is some whitespace in your example there. Try to eliminate all of that.

Just define your and your close tag in same line.

<textarea class="form-control"
          id="newText"
          rows="6"
          placeholder="Your placeholder here..."
          required
          name="newText"></textarea>

Any space in between textarea openning and closing tags will be consider as whitespace. So for your above code, the correct way will be :

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink"><?php if($siteLink_val) echo $siteLink_val; ?></textarea>

The text area shows mysterious spaces because there is a real space exists in the tags. <textarea> <php? echo $var; ?> </textarea> after removing these extra spaces between the tags will solve the issue , as following. <textarea><php? echo $var; ?></textarea>

I'm against HTML code mixed with PHP code.

However try this:

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink">
<?php 
    if($siteLink_val) 
        echo trim($siteLink_val);
?> 
</textarea>

I know its late but may help others.

use this in when document indentation is required.

$('document').ready(function()
{
    $('textarea').each(function(){
            $(this).val($(this).val().trim());
        }
    );
});

same question