How to remove html tag from string but keep html entities intact

I would like to remove the HTML tags (element) from a string without touching the html entities such as &nbps; & é < etc..

For now I am using this :

stringWithTag = "<i> I want to keep my ->&nbsp;<- element space, but remove the tags <b>Please Help</b></i>";
    var div = document.createElement('div');
    div.innerHTML = stringWithTag;
    
    console.log("INPUT with html entity &nbsp;");
    console.log(stringWithTag);

    htmlNoTag = div.textContent || div.innerText || "";
    console.log("\nOUTPUT that should still have entity &nbsp;, but not...");
    console.log(htmlNoTag);

cf jsfiddle : https://jsfiddle.net/az4st8LL/

But I always miss the element entity (in that exemple &nbsp should still be visible but it is not the case). I would like to avoid using a regex to remove all html tags if possible.

Does anyone has a solution to this ?

Thanks,

Solution

Since you want to avoid using regex, try

function stripTags(html) {
  var result = "";
  var add = true, c;
  for (var i = 0; i < html.length; i++) {
    c = html[i];
    if (c == '<') add = false;
    else if (c == '>') add = true;
    else if (add) result += c;
  }
  return result;
};

This will not work for I want to keep my -> <- element space, but remove the tags Please Help since you used < and > but will turn  I want to keep my   element space, but remove the tags Please Help into I want to keep my   element space, but remove the tags Please Help