new line doesn't appear when using c out tag

Question

I appended "
" to the String and when using s tag textarea, the newline has been appended and data are shown line by line. But when I use c out tag, data are shown in one line. How can I show line by line using with c out tag? ``` StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(); for (MyBean bean : beanList) { sb.append((bean.getName()); sb.append("
"); } return sb.toString(); ``` JSP ``` <c:out value="${myData}"/> ```

Accepted Answer

JSP produces HTML. In HTML, new lines are to be represented by the `
` element, not by the linefeed character. Even more, if you look in the average HTML source, you'll see a lot of linefeed characters, but they are by default not interpreted by the webbrowser at all. Apart from using the HTML `
` element instead of the linefeed character, ``` sb.append("
"); ``` and printing it without `` like so `${myData}`, you can also use the HTML `

` element to preserve whitespace,

```

```

or just apply CSS `white-space:pre` on the parent element, exactly like the HTML `` element is internally doing:

```
<span style="white-space:pre"><c:out value="${myData}"/></span>
```

(note: a `class` is more recommended than `style`, the above is just a kickoff example)

The latter two approaches are recommended. HTML code does not belong in Java classes. It belongs in JSP files. Even more, you should probably actually be using JSTL `<c:forEach>` to iterate over the collection instead of that whole piece of Java code.

```
<c:forEach items="${beanList}" var="bean">
    <c:out value="${bean.name}" /><br />
</c:forEach>
```

new line doesn't appear when using c out tag

Solution

Problem