Keeping line breaks from a String

[Arthur Colombo]

Hi, I've tried a few searches both here and in the servlet session, but to no avail.
What I want is to print a String that comes from a Servlet in a JSP page through a JSTL command. To do this, I'm currently setting an attribute with said String and printing it with c: out.

The problem is, being a string, the \n line breaks don't work, and trying to add <br> instead doesn't add a line break when viewing in the JSP either, instead printing it.

So, I'd like to know what I should use to create line breaks in a String that'll persist and correctly show in a JSP page with c: out.

Currently, its something similar to this

//In the servlet
String message = "A normal message. \n This line didn't break, <br>neither did this one.";
request.setAttribute("message",message);
requestdispatcher.forward("jsppage.jsp");

//In the JSP-JSTL
<c:out value="${message}"/>

[Bear Bibeault]

<br> is the correct way as line breaks are invisible whitespace to an HTML page.

The reason that isn't working for you is that you are using <c:out> incorrectly. Look up the documentation for the tag to see what you are doing wrong.

[Vijitha Kumara]

And Welcome to JavaRanch!

[Arthur Colombo]

As the documentation points out:

escapeXml - Determines whether characters <,>,&,'," in the resulting string should be converted to their corresponding character entity codes. Default value is true.

Therefore:

//This one prints a bland <br>
<c:out value=${message}>

//This one prints line breaks instead of <br>
<c:out value=${message} escapeXml="false">

Thanks for the help

[Bear Bibeault]

Bear in mind that if the string you are emitting with escapeXml enabled comes from a user, you are opening yourself up for injection attacks. Use this technique only for trusted data.

[Arthur Colombo]

The string which I am actually using in my project is created in the servlet and kept there, so that should pose no risk for the moment. Still, good to know that.