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**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 4, 2006, 11:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-script-convert-html-text-to-text/51611 "2006-01-04T11:29:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@keal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keal)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 11:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-script-convert-html-text-to-text/51611/1 "2006-01-04T11:29:48Z")
i have html-text. i have to convert this text to simple text without
html-tags.
---
**Author:**  [@keal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keal)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 11:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-script-convert-html-text-to-text/51611/2 "2006-01-04T11:45:41Z")
keal wrote:
> i have html-text. i have to convert this text to simple text without
> html-tags.
>
> –
> Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/).
path o’least resistance
lynx -dump www.myurl
or use links2 ## or w3m -dump www.myurl
or high-falutin solution
[http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse\_frm/thread/e0fb1207f1814c77/37cd5e35a1ffb8d7?q=strip+HTML+tags&rnum=7#37cd5e35a1ffb8d7](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_frm/thread/e0fb1207f1814c77/37cd5e35a1ffb8d7?q=strip+HTML+tags&rnum=7#37cd5e35a1ffb8d7)
---
**Author:**  [@keal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keal)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-script-convert-html-text-to-text/51611/3 "2006-01-04T11:54:42Z")
keal wrote:
> i have html-text. i have to convert this text to simple text without
> html-tags.
This is a very low cost variant - I guess the lynx approach is much more
effective and complete:
ruby -pe ‘gsub! %r{\}, “”’ index.html
Kind regards
```
robert
```
---
**Author:**  [@keal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/keal)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-script-convert-html-text-to-text/51611/4 "2006-01-04T12:00:43Z")
On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:30:03 -0000, keal [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> i have html-text. i have to convert this text to simple text without
> html-tags.
It’s tricky, there’s more to it than you’d think. The best way is
probably
to use Lynx, or another browser, to do it for you, e.g.:
```
def plain(url)
`lynx -dump "#{url}"`
end
p = plain('http://www.google.com/')
puts p
```
Outputs:
```
[1]Personalised Home | [2]Sign in
```
[3]A picture of the Braille letters spelling out “Google.” Happy
Birthday
Louis Braille!
```
Web [4]Images [5]Groups [6]News [7]Froogle [8]more »
```
> … [snip] …
Of course you’ll need lynx for that to work, but you can use others too.
Try a Google search.
Cheers,