javascript regular expression

Question

I have a function that through regular expression removes html content:

a.replace( /<.*?>/g, "");

However, if there are spaces they remain, for example:

<a href='site.com'>    testing</a>

That will keep the spaces. Also for something like this:

<a href='site.com'>    $20</a>

I would like the function to return only 20. So, the question is:

How do I modify the regular expression so that $ and spaces get removed as well?

Answer 1

You could extend your expression and use:

a.replace( /(?:\s|\$)*<.*?>(?:\s|\$)*/g, "");

Now, (?:\s|\$) was added. This forms a pattern of whitespaces (\s) or the $ sign (\$). The escape before the $ sign is necessary since it would match line ends otherwise. Putting ?: directly after the parenthesis creates a group for searching that is not returned as a group result.

The pattern occurs twice to allow removal of whitespace or $ signs before or after the tag.

Answer 2

or to also remove the whitespace and dollar if there is no html tag present.

a.replace( /(<.*?>)|([\s$])/g, "");

Answer 3

alternatively

a.replace( /<.*?[>][\s$]*/g, "");