How to extract only text from HTML string with PHP?

Question

I want to extract only text from a php string.

This php string contains html code like tags or etc.

So I only need a simple text from this string.

This is the actual string:

<div class="devblog-index-content battlelog-wordpress">
<p><strong>The celebration of the Recon class in our second </strong><a href="http://blogs.battlefield.com/2014/10/bf4-class-week-recon/" target="_blank">BF4 Class Week</a><strong> continues with a sneaky stroll down memory lane. Learn more about how the Recon has changed in appearance, name and weaponry over the years&hellip;</strong></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="http://eaassets-a.akamaihd.net/battlelog/prod/954660ddbe53df808c23a0ba948e7971/en_US/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/bf4-history-of-recon-1.jpg?v=1412871863.37"><img alt="bf4-history-of-recon-1" class="aligncenter" src="http://eaassets-a.akamaihd.net/battlelog/prod/954660ddbe53df808c23a0ba948e7971/en_US/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/bf4-history-of-recon-1.jpg?v=1412871863.37" style="width:619px" /></a></p>

I want to show this from the string:

The celebration of the Recon class in our second BF4 Class Week continues with a sneaky stroll down memory lane. Learn more about how the Recon has changed in appearance, name and weaponry over the years…

Actually this text will be placed in meta description tag so I don't need any HTML in meta tag. How can I perform this? Any ideas and thoughts about this technique ?

use strip_tags(), check the manual and you'll get the details on how you will use it and what it does. — user1149244, Oct 13 '14 at 15:40

score 74 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 13 '14 at 15:34

74

You may try:

echo(strip_tags($your_string));

More info here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.strip-tags.php

answered Oct 13 '14 at 15:34

MillaresRoo

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isn't there any way we could remove html characters – New Co Oct 13 '14 at 15:52
1

Sure. Check this thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/657643/how-to-remove-html-special-chars – MillaresRoo Oct 13 '14 at 15:57
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will mess this up. along with many other tags that contain text you wouldn't want – Dan Hastings Mar 19 '20 at 09:52

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 27 '17 at 10:26

Another option is to use Html2Text. It will do a much better job than strip_tags, especially if you want to parse complicated HTML code.

Extracting text from HTML is tricky, so your best bet is to use a library built for this purpose.

https://github.com/mtibben/html2text

Install using composer:

composer require html2text/html2text

Basic usage:

$html = new \Html2Text\Html2Text('Hello, &quot;<b>world</b>&quot;');

echo $html->getText();  // Hello, "WORLD"

Warning: this library does NOT return text from meta tags. – Jonny Mar 28 '22 at 03:17 — Jonny, Mar 28 '22 at 03:17

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 07 '17 at 15:04

1

Adding another option for someone else who may need this, the Stringizer library might be an option, see Strip Tags.

Full disclosure I'm the owner of the project.

answered Apr 07 '17 at 15:04

jasonlam604

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cool project, although internally uses `strip_tags()` You have any idea of making a function that deals with inline css styling? – Oluwatobi Samuel Omisakin Jan 15 '18 at 12:01

How to extract only text from HTML string with PHP?

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