Invert javascript regex

invertRegex.js

// sometimes it easier to select something constant rather than amorphic
// the following function allows the inversion of such regular expression
// while returning an array of the inverted matched results

//<regex> | object - the desired regular expression
//<str> | string - the string on which the manipulation will occur
//<clear> | boolean - whether should the return array be emptied out of empty cells:  ["",1,2,""] -> [1,2]

function invertRegex(str, regex, clear) {
  var arr = str.split(regex);
  
  if(clear) {
   arr = arr.filter(function(el) { return el.length > 0 });
  }

  return arr
}

//example
var str = '<div>something wicked <b>this way</b>comes<div><span class="caption" data-caption="wat">this is quite random</span></div></div>'
var re = /(<.*?>)/g; // matching all content within the <> tags
var invertedArray = invertRegex(str, re, true) // ["something wicked ", "this way", "comes", "this is quite random"]