how to remove   and using javascript or jQuery?

Question

I have written the following code. But it is removing only   not  

var docDesc = docDescription.replace(/(&nbsp;)*/g,"");
var docDesc1 = docDescription.replace(/(<br>)*/g,"");

Welcome to SO, please take a few minutes to read the FAQ and the Markdown documentation (a useful synposis of which is available in the right hand margin when editing a question). — AnthonyWJones
– AnthonyWJones, Commented Mar 25, 2010 at 8:05
Is docDescription a simple string or had it some history (like being innerHTML() of some DOM node)? — Boldewyn
– Boldewyn, Commented Mar 25, 2010 at 8:11
Generally, you shouldn't parse HTML using regular expressions. Doing so on JavaScript makes even less sense; you have a parsed DOM structure, and run in context of a giant HTML parser - the browser. — Kobi
– Kobi, Commented Mar 25, 2010 at 8:19
@Kobi: It depends. There are situations, where you only have a serialized HTML structure (aka a string) and want to do some preprocessing before injecting it in your site (think of XSS). — Boldewyn
– Boldewyn, Commented Mar 25, 2010 at 8:20
Then you need a javascript html parser, same as always. I doubt this is the case though. @Shaz - I think we're missing some context here. What is docDescription? How does it look now, and how was it created? — Kobi
– Kobi, Commented Mar 25, 2010 at 8:25

Boldewyn · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-30 11:06:14Z

39

You can achieve removing   with CSS alone:

#some_element br {
  display: none;
}

If that doesn't fit your needs, and you want to really delete each  , it depends, if docDescription is really a string (then one of the above solutions should work, notably Matt Blaine's) or a DOM node. In the latter case, you have to loop through the br elements:

//jquery method:
$('br').remove();

// plain JS:
var brs = common_parent_element.getElementsByTagName('br');
while (brs.length) {
  brs[0].parentNode.removeChild(brs[0]);
}

Edit: Why Matt Baline's suggestion? Because he also handles the case, where the   appears in an XHTML context with closing slash. However, more complete would be this:

/<br[^>]*>/

edited Jun 30, 2016 at 11:06

answered Mar 25, 2010 at 8:09

Boldewyn

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Comments

busytraining · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-01 21:03:41Z

12

Try:

var docDesc = docDescription.replace(/[&]nbsp[;]/gi," "); // removes all occurrences of &nbsp;
docDesc = docDesc.replace(/[<]br[^>]*[>]/gi,"");  // removes all <br>

edited Sep 1, 2015 at 21:03

busytraining

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answered Aug 16, 2011 at 9:37

Yann Saint-Dizier

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Comments

alex · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-25 08:05:19Z

3

Try this

var text = docDescription.replace(/(?:&nbsp;|<br>)/g,'');

answered Mar 25, 2010 at 8:05

alex

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Comments

hallie · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-25 08:06:23Z

2

Try "\n"...see if it works.

answered Mar 25, 2010 at 8:06

hallie

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Comments

Matt Blaine · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-25 08:06:37Z

2

What about:

var docDesc1 = docDescription.replace(/(<br ?\/?>)*/g,"");

answered Mar 25, 2010 at 8:06

Matt Blaine

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3 Comments

shaz Over a year ago

still it's removing   but not the tag.

Boldewyn Over a year ago

Has the   some content, like, e.g., a class attribute?

Matt Blaine Over a year ago

@shaz What about the regex from the end of Boldewyn's answer, and then at the end gi instead of just g?

Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-25 08:06:42Z

1

This will depend on the input text but I've just checked that this works:

var result = 'foo <br> bar'.replace(/(<br>)*/g, '');
alert(result);

answered Mar 25, 2010 at 8:06

Darin Dimitrov

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Comments

Zul · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-22 06:26:14Z

1

You can do it like this:

var cell = document.getElementsByTagName('br');
var length = cell.length;
for(var i = 0; i < length; i++) {
    cell[0].parentNode.removeChild(cell[0]);
}

It works like a charm. No need for jQuery.

answered Jun 22, 2012 at 6:26

Zul

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Comments

Đặng Văn Thanh · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-20 04:35:48Z

0

I using simple replace to remove   and br tag.

JavaScript

var str = docDescription.replace(/&nbsp;/g, '').replace(/\<br\s*[\/]?>/gi, '');

jQuery

Remove br with remove() or replaceWith()

$('br').remove();

or

$('br').replaceWith(function() {
  return '';
});

answered Aug 20, 2015 at 4:35

Đặng Văn Thanh

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