PHP hebrevc() Function

What You’ll Learn

The hebrevc() function is like hebrev() plus automatic <br> insertion at line breaks—a legacy helper for old HTML output. It was removed in PHP 8.0; this tutorial explains how it worked and what to use today.

Definition and Usage

In PHP, hebrevc() converts logical Hebrew text to visual Hebrew text (identical to hebrev()) and transforms each newline into <br> followed by a newline. That let developers echo multi-line Hebrew into HTML without wrapping content in <pre> tags.

📝 Syntax

The function mirrors hebrev() with the same optional line-width parameter:

string hebrevc(
    string $hebrew_text,
    int $max_chars_per_line = 0
)

Parameters

• $hebrew_text — Hebrew input string in logical order.
• $max_chars_per_line — optional maximum characters per line. 0 means no wrapping; a positive value wraps visual output and tries not to break words.

Return Value

Returns a visual-order Hebrew string with <br> tags inserted before each original newline.

Examples Gallery

Examples marked PHP 7.3 and earlier use hebrevc() directly. On PHP 8+, run the replacement patterns instead. All examples assume UTF-8 Hebrew strings.

<?php
$hebrew = "שלום, עולם!";
$formatted = hebrevc($hebrew);

echo "Original:  $hebrew\n";
echo "Formatted: $formatted\n";
echo "Has <br>: " . (str_contains($formatted, '<br>') ? "yes\n" : "no\n");
?>

Original:  שלום, עולם!
Formatted: !שלום, עולם
Has <br>: no

<?php
$text = "שורה ראשונה\nשורה שנייה\nשורה שלישית";
$formatted = hebrevc($text);

echo substr_count($formatted, '<br>') . " <br> tag(s)\n";
echo "---\n";
echo $formatted;
?>

2 <br> tag(s)
---
...<br>
...<br>
...

<?php
$text = "שלום\nעולם";

$plain  = hebrev($text);
$withBr = hebrevc($text);

echo "hebrev()  has <br>: " . (str_contains($plain,  '<br>') ? "yes\n" : "no\n");
echo "hebrevc() has <br>: " . (str_contains($withBr, '<br>') ? "yes\n" : "no\n");
?>

hebrev()  has <br>: no
hebrevc() has <br>: yes

<?php
$text = "שורה א\nשורה ב";

// Old (PHP 7.3 and earlier):
// $out = hebrevc($text);

// PHP 8+ equivalent:
$out = nl2br(hebrev($text), false);

echo "Contains <br>: " . (str_contains($out, '<br') ? "yes\n" : "no\n");
?>

Contains <br>: yes

<?php
$paragraphs = "שורה ראשונה\nשורה שנייה";

// Safe HTML output — no hebrevc() needed
$html = '<div dir="rtl" lang="he">' .
        nl2br(htmlspecialchars($paragraphs, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8'), false) .
        '</div>';

echo "Uses dir=rtl + htmlspecialchars + nl2br\n";
?>

Uses dir=rtl + htmlspecialchars + nl2br

🚀 Common Use Cases

• Legacy PHP 7 maintenance — understand old code that still calls hebrevc().
• Migration to PHP 8 — replace with nl2br(hebrev($text)) during upgrades.
• Multi-line Hebrew in old HTML — pages that echoed strings directly without <pre> or CSS.
• Interview / certification prep — know deprecated functions and their replacements.
• Contrasting legacy vs modern i18n — compare with dir="rtl" best practices.

📝 Notes

• Deprecated in PHP 7.4.0; removed in PHP 8.0.0.
• PHP 8+ replacement: nl2br(hebrev($text)) (when visual conversion is still required).
• Hebrew only—not for Arabic or other RTL scripts.
• Inserts raw <br> tags; do not run the result through htmlspecialchars() afterward or the tags will display as text.
• For new web apps, prefer dir="rtl", lang="he", and escaped logical-order UTF-8 text.

💡 Best Practices