Regex-based html processing is generally not regarded as a good idea: it's unreliable, labour-intensive, demanding to maintain and very very difficult to get right. The vast majority of respectable solutions are based on HTML::Parser, either directly or by way of one of the modules that put a simpler interface on it. Ovid's HTML::TokeParser::Simple is probably the one I'd recommend.My own HTML::TagFilter is simpler, but not as good (and not at all diligently maintained :).

If your goal is just to clean, rather than to digest and process, then you would also do well to try HTML::Tidy, a perl interface to the venerable but very effective htmltidy library.

I'm afraid you will almost certainly find that this wheel has already been made for you and that only a half-dozen lines of code are required...

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.