How To Convert HTML To Formatted Plain Text Using JavaScript

Converting HTML to formatted plain text using JavaScript can be a useful task in various web development scenarios. Whether you want to extract text from HTML content or remove HTML tags to create clean, readable text, JavaScript provides several methods to achieve this.

In this article, we will explore three methods to convert HTML to plain text using JavaScript. We will discuss how to:

1. Use the `.replace()` function with a regular expression to remove HTML tags from the text. This method allows you to strip HTML tags effectively.
2. Create a temporary DOM element and retrieve the text content from it, ensuring efficient conversion.
3. Utilize the popular `html-to-text` npm package for parsing HTML and converting it to plain text.

Key Takeaways:

• Converting HTML to plain text is essential for extracting meaningful content from web pages.
• JavaScript provides various methods to convert HTML to plain text, including using regular expressions, DOM manipulation, and npm packages.
• Using the `.replace()` function with a regular expression is a straightforward way to remove HTML tags from the text.
• Creating a temporary DOM element and retrieving the text content allows for efficient conversion of HTML to plain text.
• The `html-to-text` npm package offers advanced features and customization options for converting HTML to formatted plain text.

Method 1: Using .replace(/]*>/g, ”)

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Detailed Notes: This method involves using the JavaScript string method .replace() with a regular expression to remove HTML tags from the text. The regular expression /<[^>]*>/g matches any HTML tags and replaces them with an empty string. However, this method has a drawback of not being able to remove some HTML entities. Example code and output are provided.

Method 2: Create a temporary DOM element and retrieve the text

Another efficient method to convert HTML to plain text using JavaScript is by creating a temporary DOM element and extracting the text content from it. This method utilizes DOM manipulation to effectively convert HTML to plain text.

To implement this method, you need to:

1. Create a dummy DOM element using the createElement method.
2. Assign the HTML content to the innerHTML property of the created element.
3. Retrieve the text content from the element using the textContent property.

The following code snippet demonstrates how to use this method:

    // Create a temporary DOM element
    var tempElement = document.createElement('div');

    // Assign HTML content to the element
    tempElement.innerHTML = htmlContent;

    // Retrieve the text content from the element
    var plainText = tempElement.textContent;
  

This method is particularly useful when you need to extract text from specific HTML elements or manipulate the content further. It ensures that the converted text is free from any HTML tags or entities.

Let’s take a look at an example:

    <div id="article">
      <h1>Introduction</h1>
      <p>This is a paragraph inside a div.</p>
    </div>
  

Using the method described above, when applied to the HTML code above, the resulting plain text would be:

    Introduction
    This is a paragraph inside a div.
  

By leveraging DOM manipulation, you can easily convert HTML to plain text in JavaScript, allowing for further processing and analysis of the text data.

Method 3: html-to-text npm package

When it comes to converting HTML to formatted plain text in JavaScript, the html-to-text npm package is a powerful tool to consider. This package provides a convenient solution that simplifies the conversion process, offering various options to customize the output according to your requirements.

With the html-to-text package, you have control over the conversion parameters, such as word wrapping, handling of HTML tags, whitespace characters, and even the ability to add custom formatters to modify the output further.

Installing the html-to-text npm package is straightforward. Simply run the command npm install html-to-text in your JavaScript project directory. Once installed, you can start utilizing the package’s capabilities to convert HTML to formatted plain text.

To demonstrate its usage, consider the following example:

// Importing the html-to-text module
const HtmlToText = require('html-to-text');

// HTML content to convert
const htmlContent = '<p>This is some <b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i> text.</p>';

// Converting HTML to plain text
const plainText = HtmlToText.fromString(htmlContent);

// Outputting the result
console.log(plainText);

In this example, we import the html-to-text module and specify the HTML content we want to convert. By utilizing the fromString() method, we convert the HTML to plain text. Finally, the converted plain text is outputted to the console.

The html-to-text npm package offers a dependable and efficient solution for converting HTML to plain text in JavaScript projects. Its simplicity, customizability, and widespread usage make it a valuable tool for developers seeking a reliable way to parse HTML to plaintext.