Strip HTML parser

Configuration options

  • Strip HTML tags - Remove HTML tags and their attributes from the field.
  • Decode HTML entities - Convert encoded HTML entities into their corresponding characters.

Remove HTML tags

An HTML selector can be useful when the complete markup of an element is needed during extraction, while the final dataset requires only the text.

Source:
<p>In stock <strong>today</strong></p>

After Strip HTML:
In stock today

Decode HTML entities

HTML entities represent characters using encoded text.

Source:
Tom &amp; Jerry

Decoded:
Tom & Jerry

Enable entity decoding when the exported field should contain the displayed character rather than its encoded HTML representation.

HTML spacing can disappear

HTML tags can create visual separation between words, paragraphs or list items even when the raw HTML does not contain the spaces you want in the output.

Removing the tags can therefore join text that looked separate in the browser.

When spacing must be retained:

  1. Add a Replace text parser before Strip HTML.
  2. Replace the relevant closing or separator tags with spaces or line breaks.
  3. Run Strip HTML afterwards.
  4. Optionally use Remove whitespaces to normalize the result.

Example parser chain

HTML source
→ Replace </li> with "\n"
→ Strip HTML
→ Decode HTML entities
→ Remove whitespaces

Parser order matters because Strip HTML cannot preserve a structural separator after the relevant HTML tag has already been removed.

When to use a Text selector instead

If the required output is simply the visible text and a Text selector already extracts it correctly, use the Text selector. Use HTML + Strip HTML when the HTML selector is required for the source structure or when the markup itself needs to be processed before conversion to text.

Troubleshooting

  • If text becomes joined after stripping HTML, add Replace text before Strip HTML to preserve the required separators.
  • If encoded values remain visible, enable Decode HTML entities.
  • If the source field already contains plain text, Strip HTML is unnecessary.
  • If the output loses meaningful structure, consider keeping the HTML field or creating a Virtual column for the cleaned version.

Related