There is no function available in MATLAB that will read HTML files and remove the HTML tags. However, this can easily be accomplished by using Regular Expressions:
str = '<HTML>My flowers <b>may</b> <A HREF=''<http://www.a.com'' http://www.a.com''>>bloom in</A> May</HTML>';
pat = '<[^>]*>';
regexprep(str, pat, '')
An alternative method without the use of Regular Expressions involves scanning the HTML file, replacing *"*BR" tags with newline characters, as well as removing other tags. The attached example, fread_html.m, demonstrates one possible solution that handles a subset of HTML tags.
An alternative method of saving an html file without HTML formatting tags is accomplished through the use of ActiveX. The following code calls Microsoft Internet Explorer as an ActiveX automation server, copies the text of the supplied URL and stores the text into a MATLAB variable.
function str=CopyPasteIE(url);
ha = actxserver('internetexplorer.application');
Navigate(ha, url);
pause(3); % Pause to let the page load
ha.document.execCommand('selectall','','');
ha.document.execCommand('copy','','');
str=clipboard('paste');
Example usage: mystr=CopyPasteIE('http://www.google.com');
Note: The code provided in this example is for demonstration purposes and has not been throughly tested.
