remove - Turndown

Syntax

turndownService.remove(filter)

Description

Determines which HTML elements should be completely removed from the output (converted to an empty string). Both the element and its contents are removed. By default, Turndown does not remove any elements.

Parameters

string | array | function

required

Specifies which elements to remove:

String: A single tag name (e.g., 'del')
Array: Multiple tag names (e.g., ['script', 'style'])
Function: Custom filter function (node, options) => boolean

Returns

TurndownService

Returns the TurndownService instance for method chaining

Examples

Remove Single Element

turndownService.remove('del')
turndownService.turndown('<p>Hello <del>world</del><ins>World</ins></p>')
// Result: Hello World

Remove Multiple Elements

turndownService.remove(['script', 'style', 'noscript'])
turndownService.turndown(`
  <style>body { color: red; }</style>
  <p>Hello World</p>
  <script>alert('test')</script>
`)
// Result: Hello World

Remove with Custom Filter

turndownService.remove(function (node) {
  return node.nodeName === 'DIV' && node.getAttribute('class') === 'ad'
})

turndownService.turndown(`
  <div>Keep this</div>
  <div class="ad">Remove this ad</div>
  <p>Content</p>
`)
// Result:
// Keep this
//
// Content

Remove Comments or Metadata

turndownService.remove(['meta', 'link', 'script', 'style'])
turndownService.turndown(`
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
  <h1>Title</h1>
  <p>Content</p>
`)
// Result:
// # Title
//
// Content

Chaining Remove Calls

turndownService
  .remove('script')
  .remove('style')
  .remove(function (node) {
    return node.nodeName === 'IMG' && !node.getAttribute('alt')
  })

Behavior Details

Element and Contents Removed

Both the element and all its contents are removed:

turndownService.remove('div')
turndownService.turndown('<p>Before</p><div><strong>Nested</strong> content</div><p>After</p>')
// Result:
// Before
//
// After

Whitespace Handling

Removing elements doesn’t leave extra whitespace:

turndownService.remove('span')
turndownService.turndown('<p>Hello <span>world</span> there</p>')
// Result: Hello  there

Notes

Returns the instance to enable method chaining
Can be called multiple times; newer filters take precedence
Remove filters are overridden by keep filters, CommonMark rules, and added rules
To remove elements normally handled by those rules, add a custom rule instead
Removes both the element tags and all content inside them
Use keep() if you want to preserve the HTML but not convert it

​Syntax

​Description

​Parameters

​Returns

​Examples

​Remove Single Element

​Remove Multiple Elements

​Remove with Custom Filter

​Remove Comments or Metadata

​Chaining Remove Calls

​Behavior Details

​Element and Contents Removed

​Whitespace Handling

​Notes