How do I remove HTML and special charaters using jQuery?

Answer 1

Your code works, but it will remove the entire element. empty will remove all child nodes including text or nested elements.

If you just wanted to remove all the text from elements containing dots you could do:

$(":contains('•')").text();

If you just wanted to get rid of the dots and leave everything else:

    $(":contains('•')").each(function() {
    var text = $(this).text();
    text.replace(/•/gi, ""))
    $(this).text(text);
    });

Answer 2

Update: Woah, you completely changed the question with your edit. Completely.

You can process the tables in your new question, putting all the links contained by the table into a single new paragraph, like this:

$('table').each(function() {
  var $thisTable = $(this),
      links = $thisTable.find('a'),
      newPara;
  $thisTable.parent().append($("<p>").append(links));
  $thisTable.remove();
}); 

Live example

Or if you want each link in its own paragraph (probably better):

$('table').each(function() {
  var $thisTable = $(this),
      $parent = $thisTable.parent(),
      links = $thisTable.find('a');
  links.each(function() {
    $parent.append($("<p>").append(this));
  });
  $thisTable.remove();
}); 

Live example

---

Original answer, now irrelevant:

You can use empty:

$(".headlines").empty();

...to completely empty the matching elements.

Or if you want to selectively remove just the • at the beginning, you can use html and pass in a function:

$(".headlines").html(function(index, html) {
    if (html.substring(0, 1) === "•") {
        html = html.substring(1);
    }
    return html;
});

Or perhaps the * and any whitespace after it:

$(".headlines").html(function(index, html) {
    return html.replace(/^• */, '');  // A `•` at start of string
                                      // followed by zero or more spaces
});

Live example

...but don't do either of the latter ones that if the headlines elements will have complex, nested structures with event handlers on them, etc. (it's fine for basic cells, though).

Answer 3

$("<div>"+$('table a').text()+"</div>").insertAfter('#whereveryouwant");

Answer 4

var $myTable = $('#myTableId'); //Add id="myTableId" to the table you want select
$myTable.replaceWith($myTable.children('a').wrapAll('<div></div>'));

Answer 5

The question was changed to ask something completely different after this answer was posted.

See @T.J.'s answer for a solution to the new question.

---

Do it with — gasp, shock horror — vanilla JavaScript!

var $headlines = $('.headlines'),
    headlineText = $headlines.text(),
    replaceText = headlineText.replace(/•/g, '');

$headlines.text(replaceText);

or, slightly sexier syntax:

$('.headlines').text(function (index, text)
{
    return text.replace(/•/g, '');
});

Answer 6

$('.headlines a').parent().html();