HTML table to text and numeric waves

function ParseHTMLTable(htmltext)
    //Example usage: ParseHTMLTable(FetchURL("http://myurlwithtable.com"))
    //This attempts to load the last table in a webpage into IGOR waves. Doesn't work with nested tables.
    
    string htmltext
    htmltext=ReplaceString("\n",htmltext,"")//delete any line breaks
    
    //Get the last table: create a list where each "<table" entry is separated by ^
    htmltext=ReplaceString("<table",htmltext,"^<table")
    htmltext=StringFromList(ItemsInList(htmltext,"^")-1,htmltext,"^") //Assuming the table of interest is the last table on the webpage
    
    //Determine if the table has headers: any <th> tags?
    variable headerexists=StringMatch(htmltext,"*<th*")
    
    //Create a list based on tr and td and th; rows are separated by ~ and columns are separated by `
    htmltext=ReplaceString("</tr>",htmltext,"~")
    htmltext=ReplaceString("</td>",htmltext,"`")
    htmltext=ReplaceString("</th>",htmltext,"`")
 
    variable nrows =ItemsInList(htmltext,"~")-1 //subtract 1 because there's always a dummy row containing </table>
    variable ncols=ItemsInList(StringFromList(0,htmltext,"~"),"`")
    Print "Importing HTML table with "+num2str(nrows)+" rows and "+num2str(ncols)+" columns"
    
    //Put the (messy with HTML code) items into a text wave
    Make/O/T/N=(nrows,ncols) htmlTable=StringFromList(q,StringFromList(p,htmltext,"~"),"`") //each table row goes into a row of textWave
    
    //Clean up each item of the text wave in turn, given that each entry is proceeded by >
    variable i,j
    variable arrowposition=0
    string cellstring=""
    for (i=0;i<nrows;i+=1)
        for(j=0;j<ncols;j+=1)
            cellstring=htmlTable[i][j]
            arrowposition=strsearch(cellstring,">",inf,1)
            htmlTable[i][j]=cellstring[arrowposition+1,strlen(cellstring)]
        endfor
    endfor
    
    //Create a string containing the wave names based on the headers if they exist
    string wavenames=""
    for(i=0;i<ncols;i+=1)
        if(headerexists)
            wavenames=wavenames+"N='"+CleanupName(htmltable[0][i],1)+"';"
        else
            wavenames=wavenames+"N='htmlColumn"+num2str(i+1)+"';"
        endif
    endfor
    if(headerexists)
        Print "Getting wave names from table header."
        DeletePoints/M=0 0,1,htmlTable //remove the header row now that we know the names
    endif
    
    Edit htmltable //display the text table
    
    //Rather than messing about with column types, let's just save & reload to let Igor worry about column types
    Save/J/O/P=IgorUserFiles htmlTable as "HTMLtable.txt" //delimiter is tab; assumes table has no tabs embedded
    LoadWave/E=1/Q/O/A/J/V={"\t"," $",0,0}/D/B=waveNames/K=0/P=IgorUserFiles "HTMLtable.txt" //set E=0 if the loaded waves should not be displayed in a table
end

variable refNumHTML
string buffer
Open/R refNumHTML as ""
FReadLine/T="" refNumHTML, buffer
Close/A
ParseHTMLTable(buffer)