HTML Tag Extraction Regex Pattern

How it works

This pattern matches opening HTML tags (not self-closing or closing tags). The first capture group captures the tag name. It handles tags with attributes. Note: for robust HTML parsing, always use a proper HTML parser, regex is not suitable for parsing nested or malformed HTML.

Test Cases

Should Match

<div>
<a href='https://example.com'>
<input type='text' id='name'>

Should NOT Match

</div>
<br/>

Quick Summary

Extracts opening HTML tags and their tag names. Capture group 1 is the tag name. Use the global flag to find all tags. For production HTML parsing, use a proper parser like cheerio or the browser's DOMParser, regex cannot handle nested or malformed HTML reliably.

Key Takeaways

Matches opening tags only, not closing tags (</div>) or self-closing tags (<br/>)
Capture group 1: the tag name (div, a, input, etc.)
Does not parse attribute values, use a proper HTML parser for that
Regex-based HTML parsing breaks on malformed, nested, or script-embedded HTML

Use Cases

When to use it

Quick extraction of tag names from simple, known-good HTML snippets
Counting tag occurrences in a template file
Detecting specific tags in user-submitted content for sanitization hints

Watch out

Common Mistakes

Using regex to parse full HTML documents, use cheerio (Node.js) or DOMParser (browser) instead
Expecting this to handle self-closing tags like <br/> or <img/>

FAQ

HTML Tag Extraction, Frequently Asked

Why shouldn't I parse HTML with regex?

HTML is not a regular language. Nested tags, optional closing tags, and malformed markup make regex-based parsing unreliable. Use a proper parser.

What library should I use to parse HTML in Node.js?

cheerio is the most popular: it provides a jQuery-like API for server-side HTML parsing and manipulation.