Allows you to removeClasses based on a wildcard

removeClass_prefix.js

// http://jsfiddle.net/w5TnB/5/
// HTML
<div class="myclass ui-dialog ui-widget ui-blah something">
    <a href="#">REMOVE ALL CLASSES WITH UI PREFIX</a>
</div>

// Regular jQuery
$('a').click(function(){
   $(this).parent().removeClass('ui-* something'); 
    return false;
});

// My new removeClass that handles classes ending in *
$.fn.removeClass = (function(_oldRemoveClass){
    
    return function(){
 
        // Turn arguments into a true array
        var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
        var class_list = args[0];
        var classes = class_list.split(' ');
        var new_class_list = [];
        var get_rid = [];        
        var $t = $(this);
        
        for(var i = 0, clen = classes.length; i < clen; i++){
            if(classes[i].indexOf('*') !== -1){
                var c_stripped = classes[i].replace('*', '');
                $t.filter('[class*="' + c_stripped + '"]').each(function(){
                    var cl = this.className.split(' ');
                    for(var j = 0, jlen = cl.length; j < jlen; j++){
                        if(cl[j].indexOf(c_stripped) !== -1){
                            get_rid.push(cl[j]);            
                        }
                    };  
                });
            }
            else {
                new_class_list.push(classes[i]);        
            }
        }
        
        args[0] = $.merge(new_class_list, get_rid).join(' ');
        return _oldRemoveClass.apply(this, args);
 
    };
    
})($.fn.removeClass);