How to Replace New Line Using JavaScript

JavaScript provides two functions to replace a new line with HTML <br/> in the string. In today’s post, we will learn both the functions to replace newline (\n) with an HTML break tag (<br/>).

Use replaceAll() to Replace Newline With the <br/> in JavaScript

The replaceAll() is an in-built method provided by JavaScript which takes the two input parameters and returns a new String in which all matches of a pattern are replaced with a replacement. The first input parameter is a pattern which is usually a string or RegExp.

Depending on the first input params, the replacement can be a string or a function that needs to be called for each match.

Syntax:

replaceAll(regexp | substr, newSubstr | replacerFunction)

The RegEx or pattern is an object or literal with the global flag. All the matches are replaced with either a new substring or the value returned by the specified replacement function.

RegExp provided must contain the global flag g without generating a TypeError: replaceAll must be called with a regular expression.

If a string is passed instead of a RegEx, substr is a string that should be replaced with newSubstr. It is not interpreted as a regular expression and is treated as a literal string.

The second parameter, replacerFunction or newSubstr, is the string that replaces the specified substring (original string) with the specified regexp or substr parameter. Several special replacement patterns are allowed.

The replacement or replacerFunction function is called to create the new substring. This function replaces (one or all) matches with the specified RegEx or substring.

The output of the replaceAll() is a new string that contains all matches of a pattern replaced by a replacement.

Find more information in the documentation for the method replaceAll().

<div style="white-space: pre-line" id="para">Hello World.
Welcome to my blog post.
Find out all the programming-related articles in one place.
</div>

const p = document.getElementById('para').innerText;

console.log(p.replaceAll('\n', '<br/>'));

const regex = /(?:\r\n|\r|\n)/g;
console.log(p.replaceAll(regex, '<br/>'));

In the example above, we replaced the new line with the string and applied <br/> to the declaration as a new string. RegEx can be used if you want to replace a complex string.

This automatically finds the appropriate pattern and replaces it with the replace function or the replace string.

Output:

"Hello World.<br/>Welcome to my blog post.<br/>Find out all the programming-related articles in one place.<br/>"
"Hello World.<br/>Welcome to my blog post.<br/>Find out all the programming-related articles in one place.<br/>"

Use replace() to Replace Newline With the <br/> in JavaScript

The replace() is an in-built method provided by JavaScript which takes the two input parameters and returns a new String in which all or first matches of a pattern are replaced with a replacement.

The first input parameter is a pattern which is usually a string or RegExp. Depending on the first input params, the replacement can be a string or a function that needs to be called for each match.

The pattern is the string; it only replaces the first match.

Syntax:

replace(regexp | substr, newSubstr | replacerFunction)

The RegEx or pattern is an object or literal with the global flag. All the matches are replaced with either a new substring or the value returned by the specified replacement function.

RegExp provided must contain the global flag g without generating a TypeError: replaceAll must be called with a regular expression.

If a string is passed instead of a RegEx, substr is a string that should be replaced with newSubstr. It’s not interpreted as a regular expression and is treated as a literal string.

The second parameter, replacerFunction or newSubstr, is the string that replaces the specified substring (original string) with the specified regexp or substr parameter. Several special replacement patterns are allowed.

The replacement or replacerFunction function is called to create the new substring. This function replaces (one or all) matches with the specified RegEx or substring.

The replace() output is a new string containing all matches of a pattern replaced by a replacement.

Find more information in the documentation for the method replace().

<div style="white-space: pre-line" id="para">Hello World.
Welcome to my blog post.
Find out all the programming-related articles in one place.
</div>

const p = document.getElementById('para').innerText;

console.log(p.replace('\n', '<br/>'));

const regex = /(?:\r\n|\r|\n)/g;
console.log(p.replace(regex, '<br/>'));

In the example above, we replaced the new line with the string and applied <br/> to the declaration as a new string. RegEx can be used if you want to replace a complex string.

This automatically finds the appropriate pattern and replaces it with the replace function or the replace string.

Output:

"Hello World.<br/>Welcome to my blog post.
Find out all the programming-related articles in one place.
"

"Hello World.<br/>Welcome to my blog post.<br/>Find out all the programming-related articles in one place.<br/>"

Difference Between replaceAll() and replace() in JavaScript

The sole difference between replaceAll and replace is that if the search argument is a string, the prior method only replaces the first occurrence, while the replaceAll() method replaces all matching occurrences instead of the first with the replacement value or function.