I'm working on a html parser for a cms project and need to delete empty html tags recursively (as in <p><i></i></p> would all disappear) except if the tag is <a name="..."> or <a id="...">

I've got one that works but my code seems far too fragile for my taste.

while ($self->{'prcssed_txt'} =~ s/<([^<>]+)([\s]+[^<>]+)*>\s*<\/\1>\n?//) { }
This first attempt strips all empty tags.

while ($self->{'prcssed_txt'} =~ s/<([^<>a][^<>]*)([\s]+[^<>]+)*>\s*<\/\1>\n?//) { }
This one strips all empty tags that don't start with a.

while (($self->{'prcssed_txt'} =~ s/<([^<>a][^<>]*)([\s]+[^<>]+)*>\s*<
+\/\1>\n?//)
            || ($self->{'prcssed_txt'} =~ s/<a href[^<>]*>\s*<\/a>//)
            || ($self->{'prcssed_txt'} =~ s/<abbr[^<>]*>\s*<\/abbr>//)
            || ($self->{'prcssed_txt'} =~ s/<acronym[^<>]*>\s*<\/acron
+ym>//)) { }

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This one does what I want it to, but it's fragile -- if I change what order the attributes for an a tag are returned from my parser it breaks; if I add another tag that begins with a to the list of allowable tags, it breaks.

In reply to regex: deleting empty (x)html tags by CrysC

Title:
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