Question

What would be the C# / regex syntax to remove the link from the first image in a body of text like:

text
<a href="..." class="..."><img src="..." class="..." width="..." /></a>
more text
<a href="..." class="..."><img src="..." class="..." width="..." /></a>
even more text

So that the final result would be:

text
<img src="..." class="..." width="..." />
more text
<a href="..." class="..."><img src="..." class="..." width="..." /></a>
even more text

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Using the HTML Agility Pack (project page, nuget), this does the trick:

HtmlDocument doc = new HtmlDocument();
doc.LoadHtml("text <a href=\"...\" class=\"...\"><img src=\"...\" class=\"...\" width=\"...\" /></a> more text"
     +" <a href=\"...\" class=\"...\"><img src=\"...\" class=\"...\" width=\"...\" /></a> even more text\"");

var firstImage = doc.DocumentNode.Descendants("img").Where(node => node.ParentNode.Name == "a").FirstOrDefault();

if (firstImage != null)
{
    var aNode = firstImage.ParentNode;
    aNode.RemoveChild(firstImage);
    aNode.ParentNode.ReplaceChild(firstImage, aNode);
}

var fixedText = doc.DocumentNode.OuterHtml;
//doc.Save(/* stream */);

I personally find this a lot easier on the eyes, as it clearly states what you are trying to accomplish.

1. Find the first IMG inside an A tag
2. Store the IMG temporarily
3. Remove Swap the IMG and the A tag
4. Save the results.