HTML Shortener

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;

public class HtmlShortener {

    private static final String TAGS_TO_SKIP = "br,hr,img,link";
    private static final String[] tagsToSkip = TAGS_TO_SKIP.split(",");
    private static final int STATUS_READY = 0;

    private int cutPoint = -1;
    private String htmlString = "";

    final List<String> tags = new LinkedList<String>();

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("");
    StringBuilder tagSb = new StringBuilder("");

    int charCount = 0;
    int status = STATUS_READY;

    public HtmlShortener(String htmlString, int cutPoint){
        this.cutPoint = cutPoint;
        this.htmlString = htmlString;
    }

    public String cut(){

        // reset
        tags.clear();
        sb = new StringBuilder("");
        tagSb = new StringBuilder("");
        charCount = 0;
        status = STATUS_READY;

        String tag = "";

        if (cutPoint < 0){
            return htmlString;
        }

        if (null != htmlString){

            if (cutPoint == 0){
                return "";
            }

            for (int i = 0; i < htmlString.length(); i++){

                String strC = htmlString.substring(i, i+1);


                if (strC.equals("<")){

                    // new tag or tag closure

                    // previous tag reset
                    tagSb = new StringBuilder("");
                    tag = "";

                    // find tag type and name
                    for (int k = i; k < htmlString.length(); k++){

                        String tagC = htmlString.substring(k, k+1);
                        tagSb.append(tagC);

                        if (tagC.equals(">")){
                            tag = getTag(tagSb.toString());
                            if (tag.startsWith("/")){

                                // closure
                                if (!isToSkip(tag)){
                                    sb.append("</").append(tags.get(tags.size() - 1)).append(">");
                                    tags.remove((tags.size() - 1));
                                }

                            } else {

                                // new tag
                                sb.append(tagSb.toString());

                                if (!isToSkip(tag)){
                                    tags.add(tag);
                                }

                            }

                            i = k;
                            break;
                        }

                    }

                } else {

                    sb.append(strC);
                    charCount++;

                }

                // cut check
                if (charCount >= cutPoint){

                    // close previously open tags
                    Collections.reverse(tags);
                    for (String t : tags){
                        sb.append("</").append(t).append(">");
                    }
                    break;
                }

            }

            return sb.toString();

        } else {
            return null;
        }

    }

    private boolean isToSkip(String tag) {

        if (tag.startsWith("/")){
            tag = tag.substring(1, tag.length());
        }

        for (String tagToSkip : tagsToSkip){
            if (tagToSkip.equals(tag)){
                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
    }

    private String getTag(String tagString) {

        if (tagString.contains(" ")){
            // tag with attributes
            return tagString.substring(tagString.indexOf("<") + 1, tagString.indexOf(" "));
        } else {
            // simple tag
            return tagString.substring(tagString.indexOf("<") + 1, tagString.indexOf(">"));
        }


    }



}