Remove HTML tags from string including &nbsp in C#

How can I remove all the HTML tags including &nbsp using regex in C#. My string looks like

  "<div>hello</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>"

Solution 1:

If you can't use an HTML parser oriented solution to filter out the tags, here's a simple regex for it.

string noHTML = Regex.Replace(inputHTML, @"<[^>]+>|&nbsp;", "").Trim();

You should ideally make another pass through a regex filter that takes care of multiple spaces as

string noHTMLNormalised = Regex.Replace(noHTML, @"\s{2,}", " ");

Solution 2:

I took @Ravi Thapliyal's code and made a method: It is simple and might not clean everything, but so far it is doing what I need it to do.

public static string ScrubHtml(string value) {
    var step1 = Regex.Replace(value, @"<[^>]+>|&nbsp;", "").Trim();
    var step2 = Regex.Replace(step1, @"\s{2,}", " ");
    return step2;
}

Solution 3:

I've been using this function for a while. Removes pretty much any messy html you can throw at it and leaves the text intact.

        private static readonly Regex _tags_ = new Regex(@"<[^>]+?>", RegexOptions.Multiline | RegexOptions.Compiled);

        //add characters that are should not be removed to this regex
        private static readonly Regex _notOkCharacter_ = new Regex(@"[^\w;&#@.:/\\?=|%!() -]", RegexOptions.Compiled);

        public static String UnHtml(String html)
        {
            html = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(html);
            html = HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(html);

            html = RemoveTag(html, "<!--", "-->");
            html = RemoveTag(html, "<script", "</script>");
            html = RemoveTag(html, "<style", "</style>");

            //replace matches of these regexes with space
            html = _tags_.Replace(html, " ");
            html = _notOkCharacter_.Replace(html, " ");
            html = SingleSpacedTrim(html);

            return html;
        }

        private static String RemoveTag(String html, String startTag, String endTag)
        {
            Boolean bAgain;
            do
            {
                bAgain = false;
                Int32 startTagPos = html.IndexOf(startTag, 0, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);
                if (startTagPos < 0)
                    continue;
                Int32 endTagPos = html.IndexOf(endTag, startTagPos + 1, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);
                if (endTagPos <= startTagPos)
                    continue;
                html = html.Remove(startTagPos, endTagPos - startTagPos + endTag.Length);
                bAgain = true;
            } while (bAgain);
            return html;
        }

        private static String SingleSpacedTrim(String inString)
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            Boolean inBlanks = false;
            foreach (Char c in inString)
            {
                switch (c)
                {
                    case '\r':
                    case '\n':
                    case '\t':
                    case ' ':
                        if (!inBlanks)
                        {
                            inBlanks = true;
                            sb.Append(' ');
                        }   
                        continue;
                    default:
                        inBlanks = false;
                        sb.Append(c);
                        break;
                }
            }
            return sb.ToString().Trim();
        }

Solution 4:

var noHtml = Regex.Replace(inputHTML, @"<[^>]*(>|$)|&nbsp;|&zwnj;|&raquo;|&laquo;", string.Empty).Trim();

Solution 5:

I have used the @RaviThapliyal & @Don Rolling's code but made a little modification. Since we are replacing the &nbsp with empty string but instead &nbsp should be replaced with space, so added an additional step. It worked for me like a charm.

public static string FormatString(string value) {
    var step1 = Regex.Replace(value, @"<[^>]+>", "").Trim();
    var step2 = Regex.Replace(step1, @"&nbsp;", " ");
    var step3 = Regex.Replace(step2, @"\s{2,}", " ");
    return step3;
}

Used &nbps without semicolon because it was getting formatted by the Stack Overflow.