hast-util-to-string

What is hast-util-to-string?

The hast-util-to-string package is a utility for converting HAST (Hypertext Abstract Syntax Tree) nodes to plain strings. This is particularly useful when working with virtual DOM representations in projects that involve transforming HTML or Markdown content.

What are hast-util-to-string's main functionalities?

Convert HAST node to string

This feature allows the conversion of a HAST node, which can be a complex structure with nested elements, into a plain string. The code sample demonstrates creating a simple HAST tree using hastscript and then converting it to a string using hast-util-to-string.

const toString = require('hast-util-to-string');
const h = require('hastscript');

const tree = h('div', [h('p', 'Hello, world!')]);
const result = toString(tree);
console.log(result); // Outputs: 'Hello, world!'

Other packages similar to hast-util-to-string

rehype-stringify

Part of the unified.js ecosystem, rehype-stringify converts HAST trees to HTML strings. It is similar to hast-util-to-string but focuses on generating HTML output rather than plain text, making it suitable for different use cases where HTML structure needs to be preserved.

hast-util-to-mdast

This package converts HAST nodes to MDAST (Markdown Abstract Syntax Tree) nodes. While hast-util-to-string focuses on converting to plain text, hast-util-to-mdast is useful for transformations into Markdown, maintaining markdown-specific formatting and structures.

README

hast-util-to-string

hast utility to get the plain-text value of a node.

Contents

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • toString(node)
• Syntax
• Syntax tree
• Types
• Compatibility
• Security
• Contribute
• License

What is this?

This package is a utility to get the plain-text value of a node.

When should I use this?

You can use this package when you want to get the plain text value of a node. The algorithm used by this package is like the DOMs Node#textContent getter.

To use the DOMs Node#innerText algorithm instead, use hast-util-to-text. innerText is aware of how things are displayed, for example turning hard breaks (<br>) into line endings.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:

npm install hast-util-to-string

In Deno with esm.sh:

import {toString} from 'https://esm.sh/hast-util-to-string@3'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import {toString} from 'https://esm.sh/hast-util-to-string@3?bundle'
</script>

Use

import {h} from 'hastscript'
import {toString} from 'hast-util-to-string'

toString(h('p', 'Alpha'))
//=> 'Alpha'
toString(h('div', [h('b', 'Bold'), ' and ', h('i', 'italic'), '.']))
//=> 'Bold and italic.'

API

This package exports the identifier toString. There is no default export.

toString(node)

Get the plain-text value of a node.

Parameters

• node (Node) — node to serialize

Returns

Serialized node (string).

Syntax

HTML is parsed according to WHATWG HTML (the living standard), which is also followed by all browsers.

Syntax tree

The syntax tree used is hast.

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript.

Compatibility

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.

When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of Node. This means we try to keep the current release line, hast-util-to-string@^3, compatible with Node.js 16.

Security

As rehype works on HTML and improper use of HTML can open you up to a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack, use of rehype can also be unsafe. Use rehype-sanitize to make the tree safe.

Contribute

See contributing.md in rehypejs/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

License

MIT © Titus Wormer