JAVA Regex to remove html tag and content

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How to remove HTML tag in Java
RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags

I want to remove specific HTML tag with its content.

For example, if the html is:

<span style='font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";display:none;mso-hide:all'>contents</span>

If the tag contains "mso-*", it must remove the whole tag (opening, closing and content).

possible duplicate of [RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags) and [how-to-remove-html-tag-in-java](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1699313/how-to-remove-html-tag-in-java) — CoolBeans, Jan 02 '13 at 15:02

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

1

As Dave Newton pointed out in his comment, a html parser is the way to go here. If you really want to do it the hard way, here's a regex that works:

    String html = "FOO<span style='font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:"
        + "\"Times New Roman\";display:none;mso-hide:all'>contents</span>BAR";
    // regex matches every opening tag that contains 'mso-' in an attribute name
    // or value, the contents and the corresponding closing tag
    String regex = "<(\\S+)[^>]+?mso-[^>]*>.*?</\\1>";
    String replacement = "";
    System.out.println(html.replaceAll(regex, replacement)); // prints FOOBAR

edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

Community

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answered Jan 02 '13 at 15:19

jlordo

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And if the style attribute doesn't contain any `mso-` directive... maybe a more generalized regexp would be in order. – pap Jan 02 '13 at 15:26
@pap let me quote the OP: _If the tag contains "mso-*", it must remove the whole tag (opening, closing and content)._ My post answers his question, and I don't understand your comment. – jlordo Jan 02 '13 at 15:29
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Indeed you are correct. Shame on me for not reading the question properly :) And I think you underestimate yourself, you seem to have understood my comment just fine, just that I was incorrect ;) – pap Jan 02 '13 at 15:31
@pap it was my polite way of saying, I think your comment is wrong ;) – jlordo Jan 02 '13 at 15:34

JAVA Regex to remove html tag and content

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