Delete the first tag from text

Question

I need some help with wordpress. I got lots of texts that have a tag with an image in the beginning.

like...

<p><a class="lightbox" href="http://www.musicheadquarter.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chris-robinson-brotherhood-big-moon-ritual-cd-cover.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-462" title="Chris Robinson Brotherhood Big Moon Ritual CD Cover" src="http://www.musicheadquarter.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chris-robinson-brotherhood-big-moon-ritual-cd-cover-150x150.jpg" alt="Chris Robinson Brotherhood Big Moon Ritual CD Cover" width="150" height="150" /></a>&#8220;Big Moon Ritual&#8221; ist das erste Album von Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Moment mal, der Chris Robinson? Ja genau, der Chris Robinson, Sänger der legendären Black Crowes. Nachdem die Band im vergangenen Jahr leider ihr vorläufiges Ende verkündet hatte, blieb es nicht lange ruhig um Chris und seinen Bruder Rich. Der veröffentlichte bereits vor wenigen Monaten ein Soloalbum, während Chris schon zu Black Crowes-Zeiten die Chris Robinson Brotherhood formierte. Bislang gab es das Quintett allerdings lediglich auf diversen offiziellen Live-Bootlegs zu hören. Damit ist jetzt glücklicherweise Schluß!</p>

And I want to delete this...

<a class="lightbox" href="http://www.musicheadquarter.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chris-robinson-brotherhood-big-moon-ritual-cd-cover.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-462" title="Chris Robinson Brotherhood Big Moon Ritual CD Cover" src="http://www.musicheadquarter.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chris-robinson-brotherhood-big-moon-ritual-cd-cover-150x150.jpg" alt="Chris Robinson Brotherhood Big Moon Ritual CD Cover" width="150" height="150" /></a>

Sure I can do this by hand, but I got 1000 texts, with this construction.

Can someone help me to delete the first <a> with everything betweet in. like <a>....</a>?

Hi Jerry, is this a software programm? I exportet the content in a CSV file. How does this work? — DenisCGN, Jul 08 '14 at 12:48
It is code, often wrapped in a 'package' that you source from your code. [Here's a list of some HTML parsers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_HTML_parsers) — Jerry, Jul 08 '14 at 12:52
One possible solution, export your db tables then open it in an editor such as notepad++ and do a find and replace. — hwnd, Jul 08 '14 at 13:40

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 08 '14 at 12:53

2

A simple regex can handle this:

<a class=.+?\<\/a\>

replace it with blank

answered Jul 08 '14 at 12:53

Rex

76
10

Hello Rex, how does this work? What I can do is, geht the content from my Database table stored in $content. then run this string against what regex? – DenisCGN Jul 08 '14 at 12:56
You can use regex replace at the sql, like [link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/986826/how-to-do-a-regular-expression-replace-in-mysql) – Rex Jul 08 '14 at 12:59
@user1600867 you need to mention the language . – Avinash Raj Jul 08 '14 at 13:03
+1, but OP may not have "class" in some a-tags, even this is enough - **** – Harpreet Singh Jul 08 '14 at 13:46

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 08 '14 at 13:17

0

or try this.

    <((\/a)|a)[a-zA-Z0-9\.\-\_\s\w\"\=\:\/]*>

answered Jul 08 '14 at 13:17

bimal

1

@user1600867 you can open the csv file an a text editor which supports regex ( like sublime text) . DO a find and replace. Use the above regexp in the find field and leave the replace field empty. – bimal Jul 08 '14 at 13:46

user3816718 · Answer 3 · 2014-07-08T14:18:03.903

0

Demo Regexr Demo

To remove multiple links The regex you need is :

s/(\<a.*?\/a>)//gi

To remove only the first: The regex you need is :

s/(\<a.*?\/a>)//i

edited Jul 08 '14 at 14:18

answered Jul 08 '14 at 14:06

user3816718

1
1

1

Will not work if there's more than one link on the first line of content. – Niet the Dark Absol Jul 08 '14 at 14:09
Yes but the question asked to only remove the first – user3816718 Jul 08 '14 at 14:13
`foo Two links!` - your regex would remove both, and any content in between. – Niet the Dark Absol Jul 08 '14 at 14:16
Yes sorry got my containers wrong way round. corrected it now. – user3816718 Jul 08 '14 at 14:18
"The question asked to only remove the first". You're now removing all of them... – Niet the Dark Absol Jul 08 '14 at 14:19
Sorry again, iv included both versions. one with the global flag and other without. – user3816718 Jul 08 '14 at 14:23
Why are you capturing the entire regex, if you're not going to use it in any way? What if the first tag is `
` with a link inside of it? THE PONY HE COMES! :p
– Niet the Dark Absol Jul 08 '14 at 14:24
Hi, I opend the demo but I saw nothing. The `` was still there. I am so sorry, but I am not familiar, with this regexr stuff. I like to create a view of my datasbase table and then use the view to display the content without the first ``. – DenisCGN Jul 10 '14 at 07:38
When you go to the regxr demo press on 'Replace' at the top left hand side. Then You will see two text boxes at the top. on the first one replace its content with this "(\)" without quotes and second one replace with nothing. Then on the bottom you will see your desired changes. Untick the global tick box to only remove the first and its content. The global tick means keep going even after you removed the first one ie remove all of them. – user3816718 Jul 15 '14 at 13:53
Hello, can anyone put this in PHP? I got my content from a database `$content``then I want to put it in a while loop and with a find and replace php function, I will delete the first `` tag and store it back into the database. Any suggestion for PHP? Thanks for helping, Denis – DenisCGN Jul 20 '14 at 16:13

Delete the first tag from text

3 Answers3