C# RegExp to remove span tag and keep quotes char

Question

I have to remove the span tags inside a string such:

<span>Operation Gambling:</span><span>la mano della crimitalità </span><span>sull'azzardo</span>

To do this, I use the following regexp:

Regex.Replace(inHTML, "<span[^>]*?>", string.Empty).Replace("</span>", "&nbsp;</span>");

the result sometimes is correct but in this case is:

Operazione Gambling: la mano della crimitalità sull&nbsp;azzardo

As you can see the single quote has been remove, how can I keep it by modifying the pattern?

Please show **both** the input and the output of the case that fails. We cannot see what quote has been removed. More generally, regular expressions are the wrong way to manipulate HTML, use a proper HTML parser. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454 — AdrianHHH, Jul 27 '15 at 08:38
What you wish to do can't be done with one regex I think. It is a 2 to 3 step process: 1. remove span tags at the beginning and end and consume the white-spaces around them. 2. Replace any amount of span tags separated by white-spaces and the spaces around them with one single space. — maraca, Jul 27 '15 at 08:49
... ok I see you accepted, but this will give you `...Gambling:la mano...`, no space after the colon — maraca, Jul 27 '15 at 08:59
Hi maraca, yes in this case there's no blank space but this is just an example. I'm sure that there are blank spaces among words. — Ras, Jul 27 '15 at 09:03

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '15 at 08:40

You can use this code for removing HTML tag inside your string:

var str = "<span>Operation Gambling:</span><span>la mano della crimitalità </span><span>sull'azzardo</span>";
String result = Regex.Replace(str, @"<[^>]*>", String.Empty);
System.Console.WriteLine(result);

Or this regex for removing just span tags:

Regex.Replace(str, @"</?span( [^>]*|/)?>", String.Empty);

C# RegExp to remove span tag and keep quotes char

1 Answers1