What is the best way to write a regular expression so that part of the tag or its interior is not replaced?

Question

JavaScript

In general, there is a task of highlighting words when searching. So far there is this code:

scrollTarget.each(function(){
                //Обнуляем предыдущую подсветку
                $(".searchResult").each(function() {
                    $(this).replaceWith(this.childNodes);
                });

                var expr = new RegExp(''+value+'', 'ig');
                var highlightSearch =  $(this).find('a');
                 //Получаем массив совпадений которые необходимо обернуть в подсветку
                var found =  highlightSearch.html().match(expr);

                 //Подсвечиваем
                $.each(found,function(){
                    highlightSearch.html(highlightSearch.html().replace(this,'<i class="searchResult">'+this+'</i>'));
                })
            })

So, at the moment it highlights the norms until a symbol from the wrapper comes across, and then the sad thing happens. So that's actually the question: How best to write a regular expression so that the string

highlightSearch.html(highlightSearch.html().replace(this,'<i class="searchResult">'+this+'</i>'));

rewrite to

var highlightReg= new RegExp(загадочная регулярка);
  highlightSearch.html(highlightSearch.html().replace(highlightReg,'<i class="searchResult">'+this+'</i>'));

and it didn’t touch when replacing a design like <i class="searchResult">....</i>.
I feel the answer is somewhere on the surface, but something doesn’t boil my head. Point out where to look. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Don't make it difficult for yourself.
bartaz.github.io/sandbox.js/jquery.highlight.html