Module:Plain text/sandbox explained

--converts text with wikilinks to plain text, e.g "gah is bar" to "gah is bar"--removes anything enclosed in tags that isn't nested, mediawiki strip markers (references etc), files, italic and bold markuprequirestrictlocal p =

function p.main(frame) local text = frame.args[1] local encode = require('Module:yesno')(frame.args.encode) return p._main(text, encode)end

function p._main(text, encode) if not text then return end text = mw.text.killMarkers(text) :gsub(' ', ' ') --replace nbsp spaces with regular spaces :gsub('
', ', ') --replace br with commas :gsub('

(.-)', '%1') --remove spans while keeping text inside :gsub('(.-)', '%1') --remove italics while keeping text inside :gsub('(.-)', '%1') --remove bold while keeping text inside :gsub('(.-)', '%1') --remove emphasis while keeping text inside :gsub('(.-)', '%1') --remove strong while keeping text inside :gsub('(.-)', '%1') --remove subscript markup; retain contents :gsub('(.-)', '%1') --remove superscript markup; retain contents :gsub('(.-)', '%1') --remove underline markup; retain contents :gsub('<.->.-<.->', ) --strip out remaining tags and the text inside :gsub('<.->', ) --remove any other tag markup :gsub('%[%[%s*[Ff][Ii][Ll][Ee]%s*:.-%]%]', ) --strip out files :gsub('%[%[%s*[Ii][Mm][Aa][Gg][Ee]%s*:.-%]%]', ) --strip out use of image: :gsub('%[%[%s*[Cc][Aa][Tt][Ee][Gg][Oo][Rr][Yy]%s*:.-%]%]', ) --strip out categories :gsub('%[%[[^%]]-|', ) --strip out piped link text :gsub('([^%[])%^%[%][^%]]-%s', '%1') --strip out external link text :gsub('^%^%[%][^%]]-%s', ) --strip out external link text :gsub('[%[%]]', ) --then strip out remaining [and ] :gsub("", "") --strip out bold italic markup :gsub("?", "") --not stripping out ' gives correct output for bolded text in quotes :gsub('----+', ) --remove ---- lines :gsub("^%s+", "") --strip leading :gsub("%s+$", "") --and trailing spaces :gsub("%s+", " ") --strip redundant spaces if encode then return mw.text.encode(text) else return text endend

return p