Samples of tools that can be used with SQL Server in Bizweaver.

This is a user-defined function that strips out various HTML tags from data being inserted into a SQL table. This is very helpful when the input comes from a web-based API.

To use this function

• First create the function in the database where you will be doing the table insert. The code below creates the function. Additional tags can be added as needed.

/****** Object:  UserDefinedFunction [dbo].[udf_StripHTML]    Script Date: 10/28/2019 2:16:13 PM ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
 
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
 
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_StripHTML]
(
@HTMLText VARCHAR(MAX)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @START  INT
DECLARE @END    INT
DECLARE @LENGTH INT
 
-- Replace the HTML entity & with the '&' character (this needs to be done first, as
-- '&' might be double encoded as '&')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 4
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, '&')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 4
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Replace the HTML entity &lt; with the '<' character
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&lt;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 3
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, '<')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&lt;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 3
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Replace the HTML entity '\'; with the '\\' character
/*
SET @Start = CHARINDEX('\', @HTMLText)
SET @End = @Start
SET @Length = (@End - @Start)
 
WHILE (@Start > 0 AND @End > 0 AND @Length > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @Start, @Length, '\\')
SET @Start = CHARINDEX('\', @HTMLText)
SET @End = @Start + 1
SET @Length = (@End - @Start)
END
*/
 
-- Replace the HTML entity &gt; with the '>' character
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&gt;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 3
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, '>')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&gt;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 3
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Replace the HTML entity &amp; with the '&' character
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&amp;amp;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 4
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, '&')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&amp;amp;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 4
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Replace the HTML entity &nbsp; with the ' ' character
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&nbsp;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 5
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, ' ')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('&nbsp;', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 5
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Replace any <br> tags with a newline
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<br>', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 3
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, CHAR(13) + CHAR(10))
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<br>', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 3
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Replace any <br/> tags with a newline
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<br/>', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 4
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, CHAR(13) + CHAR(10))
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<br/>', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 4
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Replace any <br /> tags with a newline
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<br />', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 5
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, CHAR(13) + CHAR(10))
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<br />', @HTMLText)
SET @END = @START + 5
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Remove anything between <STYLE> tags
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<STYLE', @HTMLText)
SET @END = CHARINDEX('</STYLE>', @HTMLText, CHARINDEX('<', @HTMLText)) + 7
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, '')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<STYLE', @HTMLText)
SET @END = CHARINDEX('</STYLE>', @HTMLText, CHARINDEX('</STYLE>', @HTMLText)) + 7
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
-- Remove anything between <whatever> tags
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<', @HTMLText)
SET @END = CHARINDEX('>', @HTMLText, CHARINDEX('<', @HTMLText))
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
 
WHILE (@START > 0 AND @END > 0 AND @LENGTH > 0) BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText, @START, @LENGTH, '')
SET @START = CHARINDEX('<', @HTMLText)
SET @END = CHARINDEX('>', @HTMLText, CHARINDEX('<', @HTMLText))
SET @LENGTH = (@END - @START) + 1
END
 
RETURN LTRIM(RTRIM(@HTMLText))
 
END
GO

• Use the function during the insert process as follows.

In this example, assume your input string is coming from a FileReader step. both the FileReader and SQL table column name is “TextData”. Your insert statement will look like:

INSERT INTO TableA
  (TextData)
VALUES
  (dbo.udf_StripHTML('WorkFlow(FileReader_readList).Get({FIELD_TextData})')