# Whitespace added while editing record

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whitespace-added-while-editing-record/124522>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 29, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whitespace-added-while-editing-record/124522 "2007-12-29T19:14:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![giuseb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@giuseb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/giuseb)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whitespace-added-while-editing-record/124522/1 "2007-12-29T19:14:28Z")

</div>

Hello there and happy holidays.

I’m not sure if the surprise for what I’m seeing in my forms is  
justified, but I am very surprised, so here’s the thing.

- I have a simple model with a single text field named ‘content’.

- I run the app and create a new record.

- I write “one two three four” into the ‘content’ textarea and save the  
record. The text is properly displayed by the “show” action.

- Now I edit the same record (or create a new one, it doesn’t matter),  
this time entering

one  
two  
three  
four

i.e. newline-separated strings. As expected, the saved record is  
displayed inline as the previous one, if no extra processing (such as  
textile or markdown) is done on the output.

- Now, edit the record, look at the textarea field, and here’s the weird  
thing (to me at least)

one  
two  
three  
four

I’m hoping that the post will retain the layout of what I’ve just typed,  
i.e. the text passed to the textarea through the model’s instance  
variable is split into four lines, with A BUNCH OF WHITESPACE BEFORE  
EACH LINE, except for the first.

If I update the record without touching the textarea, this whitespace  
will be saved as well. Editing and updating again and again the record  
results in the three lines being moved further and further off to the  
right, with the size of the record growing accordingly, as shown through  
the console.

Am I missing something quite obvious?  
So sorry to have bothered you all if I am.

Cheers and thanks in advance,  
Giuseppe

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![giuseb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@giuseb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/giuseb)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whitespace-added-while-editing-record/124522/2 "2007-12-29T19:37:27Z")

</div>

On Dec 29, 2007, at 12:14 PM, Giuseppe B. wrote:

> Hello there and happy holidays.
> 
> I’m not sure if the surprise for what I’m seeing in my forms is  
> justified, but I am very surprised, so here’s the thing.

> Am I missing something quite obvious?  
> So sorry to have bothered you all if I am.
> 
> Cheers and thanks in advance,  
> Giuseppe

Will you please post the form code?

Peace,  
Phillip

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![giuseb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@giuseb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/giuseb)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whitespace-added-while-editing-record/124522/3 "2007-12-29T20:25:43Z")

</div>

> Will you please post the form code?

Phillip,

thanks for your response, it worked like a charm!  
Seriously, it got me thinking a little harder, like I should have in the  
first place, and I found out what the problem was.

I am using HAML to produce views instead of ERb. I like it a lot because  
of its cleaniness, in terms of both source and output, but it does have  
a problem with

```
, and output, as detailed here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/removed_email_address@domain.invalid/msg01593.html
The code for my form was:
#note
%h1 Editing note
= error_messages_for :note
- form_for(@note) do |f|
= f.text_field :title
= f.text_area :content
= submit_tag “Save”
= link_to “Cancel”, notes_path
It seems to work properly after the following change:
  ~ f.text_area :content

Thanks again and peace to you,
Giuseppe
```