How can I remove DOM element tags but leave their contents?

Question

I have PHP code which removes all nodes that have at least one attribute. Here is my code:

    
These          


        

Answer 1

You could use replaceChild() with the text content of that node:

foreach ($lines_to_be_removed as $line) {
  $line->parentNode->replaceChild($dom->createTextNode($line->textContent),$line);
}

// 

//   
These line shall stay
//   Remove this one
//   
But keep this
//   and this
// 

However, this may prove problematic with your // notation of your xpath selector and recursion.

---

Using a more manual approach to copy the child contents of the target nodes into the parent nodes.

$data = '

  
1A
  
1B
    
2C
    
2D
    
2E
    
2F
      
3G
      
3H
    
  
';

$dom = new DOMDOcument();
$dom->loadHTML($data, LIBXML_HTML_NOIMPLIED);
$dom->removeChild($dom->doctype);

SomeFunctionName( $dom->documentElement );

$html = $dom->saveHTML();

function SomeFunctionName( $parent )
{
  $nodesToDelete = array();
  if( $parent->hasChildNodes() )
  {
    foreach( $parent->childNodes as $node )
    {
      SomeFunctionName( $node );
      if( $node->hasAttributes() and count( $node->attributes ) > 0 )
      {
        foreach( $node->childNodes as $childNode )
        {
          $node->parentNode->insertBefore( clone $childNode, $node );
        }
        $nodesToDelete[] = $node;
      }
    }
  }
  foreach( $nodesToDelete as $delete)
  {
    $delete->parentNode->removeChild( $delete );
  }
}

// 

//   
1A
//   1B
//     
2C
//     2D
//     
2E
//     2F
//       
3G
//       3H
//       
3I
//       3J
// 

---

If you want to nest the child elements in a new "div" container swap out this porition of code

    foreach( $parent->childNodes as $node )
    {
      SomeFunctionName( $node );
      if( $node->hasAttributes() and count( $node->attributes ) > 0 )
      {
        $newNode = $node->ownerDocument->createElement('div');
        foreach( $node->childNodes as $childNode )
        {
          $newNode->appendChild( clone $childNode );
        }
        $node->parentNode->insertBefore( $newNode, $node );
        $nodesToDelete[] = $node;
      }
    }

// 

//   
1A
//   
1B
//     
2C
//     
2D
//     
2E
//     
2F
//       
3G
//       
3H
//       
3I
//       
3J
//     
//   
//