Skip HTML in Search

Question

I am starting a data entry page and I am considering using one of the HTML Editor Text Area type items. The data is going into a CLOB. After a little experimentation using the dbms_lob package I see that the HTML tags are stored with the text as in:
Called James about last order. He is <b>really excited</b> about the new product line.
Is there a function to remove the HTML tags from text before searching it? I know I can change the search string to include wild card characters between words and do a "like" comparison, but if I am looking for the word "excited" and the user only highlights "excite" when they click the bold button in the HTML editor then the stored text would be "... excite</b>d...", which obviously isn't "like '%excited%'".
As Dan McGhan pointed out in a (slightly) related Re: Classic report - Strip HTML not working :
"... don't worry about those few users ...; they will be the exception, not the rule."
However, the question stands: Is there a function to remove the HTML tags from text before searching it?
Thanks,
Gregory
Edited by: Canis Polaris on Sep 25, 2009 8:41 AM
There's supposed to be a closing bold tag between the "e" and the "d" above but it's being removed when I view this. Question 2: How can I force the display of an html tag here in the Forum?

Answer 1

I think I swiped this from Tom Kyte but give it a shot
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION str_html(line IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
  x       VARCHAR2(32767) := NULL;
  in_html BOOLEAN := FALSE;
  s       VARCHAR2(1);
BEGIN
  IF line IS NULL THEN
    RETURN line;
  END IF;
  FOR i IN 1 .. length(line) LOOP
    s := substr(line, i, 1);
    IF in_html THEN
      IF s = '>' THEN
        in_html := FALSE;
      END IF;
    ELSE
      IF s = '<' THEN
        in_html := TRUE;
      END IF;
    END IF;
    IF NOT in_html AND s != '>' THEN
      x := x || s;
    END IF;
  END LOOP;
  RETURN x;
END str_html;