How to remove a specific tag from html using Java?

Question

I have a large html. I want to remove a specific span tag which can be straightforward as.

<span class=GramE> blah blah blah</span>
Output: bla bla bla

OR

<span class=a><span class=GramE>bla bla bla</span></span>
Output: <span class=a>bla bla bla</span>

Or in any other intermingled format. However, it should preserve the text between ...

Actual html

<td width=265 colspan=3 valign=top style='width:7.0cm;background:white;
 padding:0cm 5.75pt 0cm 5.75pt'> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span class=GramE><span style='font-size:13.0pt'>(Here</span></span><span style='font-size:13.0pt'> Lorem ispsum. Lorem ispsum. Lorem ispsum. Lorem ispsum )</span></p>
            </td>

I have tried the following code however, the replaceAll() doesnt seem to work. There are many intermingled span-tags in my html text which need this output. Please help me figure out where am I going wrong.

String filename = "file-location.html";
try (BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename))) {

        String line;
        String sb = "";

        while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {

            String tmp = line.replaceAll("<span class=GramE[^>]*>/g", "");
            System.out.print(tmp);
        }

    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

The ``/g`` at the end of your regex looks wrong. Remove it and try again. — f1sh, Mar 03 '17 at 14:32
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454 — Maurice Perry, Mar 03 '17 at 14:32
@f1sh It doesnt work even if I remove /g. I tried the same before this — Nevermore, Mar 03 '17 at 14:33
Please use an HTML parser (e.g. JSoup) and edit your file appropriatly. — Flown, Mar 03 '17 at 14:36

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

2

Based on RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags (thanks to @Maurice Perry's comment)

I recommend you to use jsoup, as showed here: Parse html with jsoup and remove the tag block

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

1
1

answered Mar 03 '17 at 14:36

D.Kastier

2,640
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Good idea. I will try it ASAP. Hope it works. However, I was thinking of easy work using Regex – Nevermore Mar 03 '17 at 14:40

Aubin · Answer 2 · 2017-03-06T12:02:14.253

1

This answer was done before actual html is added to the question. JSoup address grammatical issues, when RegEx may address lexical issues. So, for this problem, using JSoup is the only way.

However, this answer may help RegEx users:

line.replaceAll("<span class=GramE>([^<]*)</span>", "$1" );

([^<]*) is a capturing group and $1 is its value.

see the documentation.

Test case:

public class RemoveTagFromPage {

   public static void main( String[] args ) {
      final String text =
         "<html><body>" +
            "<p>hello</p>" +
            "<span class=a>" +
               "<span class=GramE>bla bla bla</span>" +
            "</span>" +
         "</body></html>";
      System.out.println(
         text.replaceAll("<span class=GramE>([^<]*)</span>", "$1" ));
   }
}

Execution log:

<html><body><p>hello</p><span class=a>bla bla bla</span></body></html>

edited Mar 06 '17 at 12:02

answered Mar 03 '17 at 14:33

Aubin

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Its a precise test-case. However, in case of inter-looped span tags. It fails. – Nevermore Mar 03 '17 at 15:39
Revise the specification, please. – Aubin Mar 04 '17 at 08:17
I have revised my question. – Nevermore Mar 04 '17 at 10:47
Tested, passed. Post a real test case please. The sample you post is missing quote. – Aubin Mar 05 '17 at 08:27
Added a part of real test case. – Nevermore Mar 06 '17 at 07:06
With this updated spec, the problem isn't lexical but grammatical, so JSoup is the best tool. – Aubin Mar 06 '17 at 11:56
Thanks for your time. I will do it using Jsoup – Nevermore Mar 06 '17 at 13:21

How to remove a specific tag from html using Java?

2 Answers2