JavaScript add spaces between sentences while parsing XML string

Question

I have this XML string which I am displaying as a text in a document:

<p>The new strain of <s alias="coronavirus">COVID</s>seems to be having a greater spread rate.</p>

The following function returns the text form of the XML:

function stripHtml(html) {
  // Create a new div element
  var temporalDivElement = document.createElement("div");
  // Set the HTML content with the providen
  temporalDivElement.innerHTML = html;
  // Retrieve the text property of the element (cross-browser support)
  return temporalDivElement.textContent || temporalDivElement.innerText || "";
}

The problem is, this function returns the following string:

The new strain of COVIDseems to be having a greater spread rate.

which is nearly what I want, but there is no space between the word COVID and seems. Is it possible that I can add a space between contents of two tags if it doesn't exist?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 29 '21 at 06:42

One option is to iterate over text nodes and insert spaces at the beginning if they don't exist, something like:

const getTextNodes = (parent) => {
    var walker = document.createTreeWalker(
        parent,
        NodeFilter.SHOW_TEXT, 
        null, 
        false
    );

    var node;
    var textNodes = [];

    while(node = walker.nextNode()) {
        textNodes.push(node);
    }
    return textNodes;
}


function stripHtml(html) {
  // Create a new div element
  var temporalDivElement = document.createElement("div");
  // Set the HTML content with the providen
  temporalDivElement.innerHTML = html;
  // Retrieve the text property of the element (cross-browser support)
  for (const node of getTextNodes(temporalDivElement)) {
    node.nodeValue = node.nodeValue.replace(/^(?!\s)/, ' ');
  }
  return temporalDivElement.textContent.replace(/  +/g, ' ').trim();
}

console.log(stripHtml(`<p>The new strain of <s alias="coronavirus">COVID</s>seems to be having a greater spread rate.</p>`));

JavaScript add spaces between sentences while parsing XML string

1 Answers1