PHP strip_tags() Function
Topic: PHP String ReferencePrev|Next
Description
The strip_tags() function strips the HTML and PHP tags from a string.
The following table summarizes the technical details of this function.
| Return Value: | Returns the stripped string. |
|---|---|
| Changelog: | Since PHP 7.4.0, the allowable_tags now alternatively accepts an array. |
| Version: | PHP 4+ |
Syntax
The basic syntax of the strip_tags() function is given with:
The following example shows the strip_tags() function in action.
Example
Run this code »<?php
// Sample string
$str = "<h1>Hello World!</h1>";
// Stripping HTML tags from string
echo strip_tags($str);
?>Note: The HTML comments and PHP tags are always stripped by this function. This is hardcoded and can not be changed with the allowable_tags parameter.
Warning: This function should not be used to prevent XSS attacks. Use more appropriate functions like htmlspecialchars() or other means depending on the context.
Parameters
The strip_tags() function accepts the following parameters.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| string | Required. Specifies the string to work on. |
| allowable_tags | Optional. Specifies the tags which should not be stripped. |
More Examples
Here're some more examples showing how strip_tags() function actually works:
Self-closing XHTML tags are ignored and only non-self-closing tags should be used in allowable_tags. For example, if you want to allow both <br> and <br/>, you should use:
Example
Run this code »<?php
// Sample string
$str = "<h1>Hello<br/>World!</h1>";
// Stripping all HTML tags except <br> and <br/>
echo strip_tags($str, "<br>");
?>As of PHP 7.4.0, you can also pass an array as allowable_tags parameter, like this:
Example
Run this code »<?php
// Sample string
$str = '<p>Hello <b>World!<b></p><!-- Comment --><a href="#top">Top</a>';
// Stripping all HTML tags except <p> and <a>
echo strip_tags($str, ["p", "a"]);
?>
