Why should I not parse HTML with regex?

HTML allows arbitrary nesting, optional quotes, and malformed markup that breaks regex. For robust HTML processing, use the browser DOM API or a parser like cheerio.

How do I strip all HTML tags from a string?

Use a simple pattern like / ]*>/g with replace to remove all tag-like substrings. This works for clean HTML but may fail on malformed or nested edge cases.

What does the i flag do in regex?

The i flag enables case-insensitive matching, so the pattern matches both and . HTML tags are case-insensitive in the HTML specification.

Regex Pattern for HTML Tags

Matching HTML tags with regex is useful for stripping markup from text content or finding specific elements in a string. This example matches opening, closing, and self-closing tags along with their attributes. Be aware that regex is not a reliable HTML parser for complex, nested structures — use a proper DOM parser for production HTML processing. The tester here is ideal for quick text transformations.

Example

/<([a-z]+)([^<]+)*(?:>(.*)<\/\1>|\s+\/>)/gi

# Test input:
<p class="intro">Hello world</p>
<img src="logo.png" alt="Logo" />
<a href="https://example.com">Click here</a>
<br />
<div id="main"><span>Nested</span></div>

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FAQ

Why should I not parse HTML with regex?: HTML allows arbitrary nesting, optional quotes, and malformed markup that breaks regex. For robust HTML processing, use the browser DOM API or a parser like cheerio.
How do I strip all HTML tags from a string?: Use a simple pattern like /<[^>]*>/g with replace to remove all tag-like substrings. This works for clean HTML but may fail on malformed or nested edge cases.
What does the i flag do in regex?: The i flag enables case-insensitive matching, so the pattern matches both <P> and <p>. HTML tags are case-insensitive in the HTML specification.

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