Stripping HTML tag

[DFrag]

Hello all,

Is there a function for stripping HTML tags from a string? Iam trying to read in an HTML page and want to strip the tags from it. Is there an easy way of doing this?

Thanks
DFrag

[DrDoc]

$string = preg_replace("/<[^>]+>/","",$string);

I don't know exactly how you're planning on using this... But, if it's for a form (and you want to strip HTML out of the posts) you can also render it harmless by doing something like:

$string = preg_replace(array("/</","/>/"),array("&lt;","&gt;"),$string);

[RonPK]

preg gives you all the flexibility you could possibly need. If you're looking for a built-in function, ready to use, try strip_tags($string). It, erm, strips tags from the input string.

[dcrombie]

What about just using strip_tags [php.net]?

[webadept]

I think you will find that stripping a whole page of HTML with reliable accuracy is more difficult than the simple regex given can do, or even the more function strip_tags. strip_tags, page, will show you that. There is a great deal to HTML these days. DOM tags, inline javascript, all kinds of stuff.

Here's a regex I use, it is not perfect either, just like all those on the PHP strip_tags page, eventually it misses something, but it is fast, and it does work a good percentage of the time.

 s/
  <        # open tag
  (?:       # open group (A)
   (!--) ¦    #  comment (1) or
   (\?) ¦    #  another comment (2) or
   (?i:     #  open group (B) for /i
    ( TITLE ¦ #   one of start tags
     SCRIPT ¦ #   for which
     APPLET ¦ #   must be skipped
     OBJECT ¦ #   all content
     STYLE   #   to correspond
    )      #   end tag (3)
   ) ¦      #  close group (B), or
   ([!/A-Za-z]) #  one of these chars, remember in (4)
  )        # close group (A)
  (?(4)      # if previous case is (4)
   (?:      #  open group (C)
    (?!     #   and next is not : (D)
     [\s=]   #    \s or "="
     ["`']   #    with open quotes
    )      #   close (D)
    [^>] ¦   #   and not close tag or
    [\s=]    #   \s or "=" with
    `[^`]*` ¦  #   something in quotes ` or
    [\s=]    #   \s or "=" with
    '[^']*' ¦  #   something in quotes ' or
    [\s=]    #   \s or "=" with
    "[^"]*"   #   something in quotes "
   )*      #  repeat (C) 0 or more times
  ¦        # else (if previous case is not (4))
   .*?      #  minimum of any chars
  )        # end if previous char is (4)
  (?(1)      # if comment (1)
   (?<=--)    #  wait for "--"
  )        # end if comment (1)
  (?(2)      # if another comment (2)
   (?<=\?)    #  wait for "?"
  )        # end if another comment (2)
  (?(3)      # if one of tags-containers (3)
   </      #  wait for end
   (?i:\3)    #  of this tag
   (?:\s[^>]*)? #  skip junk to ">"
  )        # end if (3)
  >        # tag closed
  ///gsx

[DFrag]

Thanks for the replies people. I think the strip_tags will suffice for the time being.