PHP Form implode / explode

I am using the a db field merchant_sku_item in a form. the original value is separated by / in the db like this:

2*CC689/1*CC368-8/1*SW6228-AB

I want to display in a text area on each line so I tried like this:

   <textarea name="merchant_sku_item" rows="5" class="form-control" id="merchant_sku_item"><?
               $items=explode('/',$merchant_sku_item); 
                foreach($items as $item){
                    echo $item."\r\n";
                    } 
    ?></textarea>
    

All works fine:

2*CC689
1*CC368-8
1*SW6228-AB

but when I post the form I get a value like this:

2*CC689 1*CC368-8 1*SW6228-AB

but I wan’t it back in the original format to update the DB in the correct format:

2*CC689/1*CC368-8/1*SW6228-AB

I tried to implode it with the / but I think it’s just one string now so it’s not working. I could replace the spaces I guess but this will not work if the field contains spaces.

Could somebody please tell me the best way to handle this?

>Solution :

Try replacing the created spaces and removing newline characters like so:

<?php
   $merchant_sku_item = str_replace("\r\n","/",trim($_POST["merchant_sku_item"]));
?>