How to Use Jsoup to Select Only Text Within a Div That Contains Other HTML Elements?

What is the best way to use Jsoup to select only the text within a div that includes other HTML elements?

Element element = Jsoup.parse(html).select("div.myClass").first(); String textOnly = element.ownText();

Jsoup is a powerful Java library used for parsing HTML and extracting data from websites. To select only the text content from a div that contains other elements, it’s essential to utilize the Jsoup library properly. This guide will illustrate how to achieve this with step-by-step explanations.

String html = "<div class='myClass'>This is <b>bold</b> text and <i>italic</i> text.</div>";
Element element = Jsoup.parse(html).select("div.myClass").first();
String textOnly = element.ownText(); // Returns: 'This is text and text.'

Causes

• The div contains multiple HTML elements, making simple selection return HTML.
• To only get text, one must isolate the text nodes.

Solutions

• Use the `ownText()` method to retrieve only the direct text child nodes of the selected element.
• Use `text()` for all text, but this includes text from nested elements.

Mistake: Using `text()` instead of `ownText()`, leading to unwanted text selection from nested elements.

Solution: Use `ownText()` to get only the text directly under the selected element.

Mistake: Not checking if the selected element is null, which can throw a NullPointerException.

Solution: Always check if the element is not null before proceeding with text extraction.