How about having a native BR to Newline method, i.e. br2nl

[subrataemfluence]

Is there a specific reason that WordPress does not have yet (?) a function to convert Line break (<Br />) to Newline (\n)?

This is useful for textarea fields.

One of the use cases could be a multiline address used as metadata in the user profile.

In the textarea user enters like:

Building name <Return>
Street address <Return>
Postal code. Country name

When saved we usually convert all line breaks into HTML line breaks for easier rendering in the front-end. We do this using nl2br method. So in the database, the above becomes:

Building name <br />
Street address <br />
Postal code. Country name

However, when the above information is populated in edit mode, it comes up like

Building name <br />
Street address <br />
Postal code. Country name.

A br2nl method will make life much easier.

<?php
/**
 * @param string $input_string
 * Converts HTML line break (<br />) into newline character (\n)
 *
 * @return null|string|string[]
 * Since 5.5
 */
function br2nl( $input_string ) {
   return preg_replace('/<br\s?\/?>/ius', "\n", str_replace( "\n", "", str_replace( "\r", "", htmlspecialchars_decode( $input_string ) ) ) );
}

[subrataemfluence]

What's happening here?! I request the concerned team take necessary action ikmmediately, please.

Replying to techunz:
~link removed~

[johnbillion]

@subrataemfluence This was a spam comment.

[subrataemfluence]

Thank you @johnbillion for taking immediate action and removing the link :)

Replying to johnbillion:

@subrataemfluence This was a spam comment.

[antonvlasenko]

@subrataemfluence

When saved we usually convert all line breaks into HTML line breaks for easier rendering

In my tests, when I save multiline text, it is saved as is, without the <br> characters.
Also, nl2br() doesn't seem to be used by Core.
Are you reffering to some custom code?

Additionally, there has been no activity on this ticket for the past three years.
Could it be closed in case it's no longer relevant?