Question: I am using `nl2br()` to convert `\n` characters to the `<br />` tag but I do not want more than one `<br />` tag at a time. For example, `Hello \n\n\n\n Everybody` should become `Hello <br /> Everybody`.

How can I do this?

Answer: 
The most direct approach might be to first replace the multiple newlines with one using a simple regular expression:

```
nl2br(preg_replace("/\n+/", "\n", $input));

```
I'd try replacing repeated newlines with single newlines using preg\_replace() first, then using nl2br to convert to HTML   
 tags. `nl2br(preg_replace('/\n+/', '\n', $the_string))` should do the trick (untested).