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Convert Html To Plain Text In Js Without Browser Environment

Browsers are great for displaying web pages beautifully with all their fancy ornaments like images and colors. But sometimes, all you need is plain text, no frills attached. So, how do you convert HTML to plain text using JavaScript without relying on the browser environment? Let's dive into this neat trick that can come in handy in various coding scenarios.

First off, to accomplish this HTML to plain text conversion magic, we'll need to strip out all the HTML tags and keep just the text content. In JavaScript, this can be achieved by using regular expressions. Regular expressions, often abbreviated as regex, allow us to search for and manipulate text patterns.

To start, let's consider a simple HTML snippet:

Html

<p>Hello, <strong>world!</strong></p>

Our goal is to convert this HTML content into plain text, in this case, "Hello, world!" Let's see how we can do this using JavaScript:

Javascript

function htmlToPlainText(html) {
    return html.replace(/]*&gt;/g, '');
}

const htmlContent = '<p>Hello, <strong>world!</strong></p>';
const plainText = htmlToPlainText(htmlContent);

console.log(plainText);

In this code snippet, the `htmlToPlainText` function takes the HTML content as input and uses the `replace` method along with a regex pattern `]*>` to remove all HTML tags. The `]*>` regex pattern matches any HTML tag and removes it from the string, leaving only the plain text.

Now, if you want to convert more complex HTML content with nested tags, attributes, or special characters, a more sophisticated approach might be required. You could consider using a library like `html-to-text` that provides advanced features for handling HTML to text conversion.

Here's how you can use the `html-to-text` library to achieve the same conversion result:

Javascript

const htmlToText = require('html-to-text');

const htmlContent = '<p>Hello, <strong>world!</strong></p>';
const plainText = htmlToText.fromString(htmlContent, {
    wordwrap: false,
    ignoreImage: true,
});

console.log(plainText);

In this code snippet, we include the `html-to-text` library and use its `fromString` method to convert HTML content to plain text. The options like `wordwrap` and `ignoreImage` allow you to customize the conversion process based on your requirements.

By now, you should be equipped with the knowledge to seamlessly convert HTML to plain text in JavaScript without relying on the browser environment. Whether you opt for a regex-based solution or leverage a specialized library like `html-to-text`, handling HTML content as plain text is no longer a daunting task. So go ahead, try it out in your projects, and streamline your data processing with this nifty conversion technique. Happy coding!

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