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));

```
If you have php 5.2.4+ you can use preg\_replace and the vertical whitespace character type `\v`

```
$str = preg_replace('/\v+/','<br>', $str);

```