13.3.1 HTMLParser Objects
Keywords: lib

##
13.3.1 HTMLParser Objects

In addition to tag methods, the `HTMLParser` class provides some additional methods and instance variables for use within tag methods.

`formatter`
  This is the formatter instance associated with the parser.

`nofill`
  Boolean flag which should be true when whitespace should not be collapsed, or false when it should be. In general, this should only be true when character data is to be treated as ``preformatted'' text, as within a `<PRE>` element. The default value is false. This affects the operation of `handle_data()` and `save_end()`.

`anchor_bgn`(href, name, type)
  This method is called at the start of an anchor region. The arguments correspond to the attributes of the `<A>` tag with the same names. The default implementation maintains a list of hyperlinks (defined by the `HREF` attribute for `<A>` tags) within the document. The list of hyperlinks is available as the data attribute `anchorlist`.

`anchor_end`()
  This method is called at the end of an anchor region. The default implementation adds a textual footnote marker using an index into the list of hyperlinks created by `anchor_bgn()`.

`handle_image`(source, alt[, ismap[, align[, width[, height]]]])
  This method is called to handle images. The default implementation simply passes the alt value to the `handle_data()` method.

`save_bgn`()
  Begins saving character data in a buffer instead of sending it to the formatter object. Retrieve the stored data via `save_end()`. Use of the `save_bgn()` / `save_end()` pair may not be nested.

`save_end`()
  Ends buffering character data and returns all data saved since the preceding call to `save_bgn()`. If the `nofill` flag is false, whitespace is collapsed to single spaces. A call to this method without a preceding call to `save_bgn()` will raise a `TypeError` exception.