Javascript replace regex all html tags except p,a and img

Question

I'm trying to remove all html tags except p, a and img tags. Right now I have:

content.replace(/(<([^>]+)>)/ig,"");

But this removes all HTML tags.

This are examples of the content of the api:

    <table id="content_LETTER.BLOCK9" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#F7EBF5">
<tbody><tr><td class="ArticlePadding" colspan="1" rowspan="1" align="left" valign="top"><div>what is the opposite of...[] rest of text

You can go two ways, either fix your pattern to not match those tags or change your replace from an empty string to a function that checks the tag and returns the match if you want to keep it or an empty string if not. — Jonathan Kuhn
– Jonathan Kuhn, Commented May 16, 2017 at 18:36
Its for an app that's load WordPress data from a post with a lot of styling but that's undesirable for the app. — Maarten Heideman
– Maarten Heideman, Commented May 16, 2017 at 18:40
You can still make a simple example input/output without having tons of formatting. Even something as simple as <b>remove these</b><p>keep these</p> would be fine. — Jonathan Kuhn
– Jonathan Kuhn, Commented May 16, 2017 at 18:41
for example: <table id="content_LETTER.BLOCK9" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#F7EBF5">↵<tbody>↵<tr>↵<td class="ArticlePadding" colspan="1" rowspan="1" align="left" valign="top">↵<div>what is the opposite of... rest of text — Maarten Heideman
– Maarten Heideman, Commented May 16, 2017 at 18:45

Dmitry Egorov · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-16 18:57:49Z

14

You may match the tags to keep in a capture group and then, using alternation, all other tags. Then replace with $1:

(<\/?(?:a|p|img)[^>]*>)|<[^>]+>

Demo: https://regex101.com/r/Sm4Azv/2

And the JavaScript demo:

var input = 'b<body>b a<a>a h1<h1>h1 p<p>p p</p>p img<img />img';
var output = input.replace(/(<\/?(?:a|p|img)[^>]*>)|<[^>]+>/ig, '$1');
console.log(output);

edited May 16, 2017 at 18:57

answered May 16, 2017 at 18:48

Dmitry Egorov

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1 Comment

Witold Over a year ago

This would also omit <pre></pre> or any other tag which starts with a, p or img

degant · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-16 18:55:30Z

8

You can use the below regex to remove all HTML tags except a, p and img:

<\/?(?!a)(?!p)(?!img)\w*\b[^>]*>

Replace with an empty string.

var text = '<tr><p><img src="url" /> some text <img another></img><div><a>blablabla</a></div></p></tr>';
var output = text.replace(/<\/?(?!a)(?!p)(?!img)\w*\b[^>]*>/ig, '');
console.log(output);

Regex 101 Demo

answered May 16, 2017 at 18:55

degant

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Comments

LanreSmith · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-30 21:02:12Z

0

var input = 'b<p on>b <p>good p</p> a<a>a h1<h1>h1 p<pre>p p</p onl>p img<img src/>img';
var output = input.replace(/(<(?!\/?((a|img)(\s+[^>]+)*|p)\s*>)([^>]+)>)/ig, '');
console.log(output);
output: bb <p>good p</p> a<a>a h1h1 pp pp img<img src/>img

And if you'd like to remove JS event handler attributes:

var input = 'b<p on>b <p>good p</p> a<a>a h1<h1>h1 p<pre>p p</p onl>p img<img src="y.gif" /> see <img src="x.png" onerror alt="cat" /> there';
var output = input.replace(/(<(?!\/?((a|img)(\s+((?!on)[^>])+)*|p)\s*>)([^>]+)>)/ig, '');
console.log(output);
output: bb <p>good p</p> a<a>a h1h1 pp pp img<img src="y.gif" /> see  there

answered May 30, 2023 at 21:02

LanreSmith

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