SQL Wildcards to RegExp replace certain text in a column content - sql

Question

I have got a table where one of the column has text mixed with HTML data. This was due to a bug (fixed) in a script, but the SQL data needs to be edited to reflect the changes. The column has a type nvarchar(max, null). All I need to do is find tags such as <a img="lkss">,<div attr=val> and replace them with empty string "". I looked into this, but the solution says how to replace the entire contents based on one pattern. My problem is that I need to replace contents partly, but preserve clean text (i.e. not HTML tags/attributes). Any suggestion/help is appreciated.
Test column data:
<div attr=val; color=somecolor>inside text<div some=val><a some=val>Inside anchor
Expected result:
inside textInside anchor

Answer 1

I use a CTE like this:
DECLARE #str nvarchar(max) = '<div attr=val; color=somecolor>inside text<div some=val><a some=val>Inside anchor';
WITH CTE(myStr) AS (
SELECT #str
UNION ALL
SELECT REPLACE(mystr, SUBSTRING(myStr, CHARINDEX('<', myStr, 1), CHARINDEX('>', myStr, 1) - CHARINDEX('<', myStr, 1) + 1), '')
FROM CTE
WHERE PATINDEX('%<%>%',myStr) > 0
)
SELECT myStr
FROM CTE
WHERE PATINDEX('%<%>%',myStr) = 0
I suggest you to use it in a SVF like this:
CREATE FUNCTION tagRemover
(
#str nvarchar(max)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #ResultVar nvarchar(max);
SELECT #ResultVar = #str;
;WITH CTE(myStr, id) AS (
SELECT #str, 1
UNION ALL
SELECT REPLACE(mystr, SUBSTRING(myStr, CHARINDEX('<', myStr, 1), CHARINDEX('>', myStr, 1) - CHARINDEX('<', myStr, 1) + 1), ''), id + 1
FROM CTE
WHERE PATINDEX('%<%>%',myStr) > 0
)
SELECT #ResultVar = myStr
FROM CTE
WHERE PATINDEX('%<%>%',myStr) = 0;
RETURN #ResultVar;
END
GO