JAVASCRIPT

Strip HTML Tags from a String for Plain Text Output

Learn to remove all HTML tags from a string using a regular expression in JavaScript, useful for sanitizing user input or generating plain text summaries.

const stripHtmlTags = (htmlString) => {
  // WARNING: For full security (e.g., XSS prevention), use a proper HTML parser/sanitizer library 
  // (like DOMPurify). This regex is for basic tag removal, not robust security.
  const tagRegex = /<[^>]*>/g;
  return htmlString.replace(tagRegex, "");
};

const messyHtml = "<h1>Hello, <strong>World</strong>!</h1><p>This is a test.</p><img src='x.jpg' onerror='alert(1)'>";
console.log(stripHtmlTags(messyHtml)); // "Hello, World!This is a test."

How it works: This JavaScript function `stripHtmlTags` uses a simple regular expression to find and replace all HTML tags (anything enclosed between `<` and `>`) with an empty string, effectively removing them. While useful for converting rich text to plain text or creating short summaries, it's crucial to note that for security-critical sanitization (e.g., preventing XSS), a dedicated HTML parser and sanitization library is always recommended over simple regex due to the complexity of HTML parsing.

Strip HTML Tags from a String for Plain Text Output

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