How can I use a multiline value for an HTML tag attribute? (i.e. how do I escape newline?)

Question

How do I include a newline in an HTML tag attribute?

For example:

<a href="somepage.html" onclick="javascript: foo('This is a multiline string.
This is the part after the newline.')">some link</a>

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Edit: Sorry, bad example, what if the tag happened to not be in javascript, say:

<sometag someattr="This is a multiline string.
This is the part after the newline." />

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Edit 2: Turns out the newline in the string wasn't my problem, it was the javascript function I was calling. FWIW, "
" can be used for newline in an HTML attribute.

Answer 1

From what I remember about the HTML standard, character entities work in attributes, so this might work:

<sometag someattr="This is a multiline string.&#10;This is the part after the newline." />

I'm not sure if the "newline" you want ought to be 
 (\n) or 
 (\r\n), and I'm not sure if browsers will interpret it the way you want.

Why do you need it? What specific problem are you trying to solve by adding a newline in an HTML tag attribute?

Answer 2

To include a multiline value, just continue the text of the html attribute on the next line in your editor e.g.

<input type="submit" value="hallo
hallo"> 

will put the second hallo under the first

Answer 3

As a general rule newlines in attributes are preserved so your second example would work fine. Did you try it? Can you give a specific example where you are having problems with it?

As test take a look at this:-

<a href="somepage3.html" onclick="javascript: alert(this.getAttribute('thing'))" thing="This is a multiline string.
This is the part after the newline.">some link</a>

The alert include the newline in the attribute.

Answer 4

<a href="somepage.html" onclick="javascript: foo('This is a multiline string. \
This is the part after the newline.')">some link</a>

Javascript needs a backslash at the end of the new line in a string.

Answer 5

i'm not certain, but you can try \r or \n

javascript: foo('This is a multiline string.\rThis is the part after the newline.')

or

javascript: foo('This is a multiline string.\nThis is the part after the newline.')

Answer 6

Usually, line breaks in HTML source code display what you intended in the result.

(Depends on the editor of course)

Answer 7

Since it's in Javascript, you would use "\n" if inside double-quotes (not positive about single-quotes, I've been in PHP a lot lately.

Honestly, it's worth mentioning that you should use Events and a delegator instead of placing a javascript event directly on the element.