Find all elements based on ids using regex on jQuery selector

Question

I\'ve got several elements with unique ids like so:

Answer 1

James Padolsey created a wonderful filter that allows regex to be used for selection.

jQuery.expr[':'].regex = function(elem, index, match) {
    var matchParams = match[3].split(','),
        validLabels = /^(data|css):/,
        attr = {
            method: matchParams[0].match(validLabels) ? 
                        matchParams[0].split(':')[0] : 'attr',
            property: matchParams.shift().replace(validLabels,'')
        },
        regexFlags = 'ig',
        regex = new RegExp(matchParams.join('').replace(/^s+|s+$/g,''), regexFlags);
    return regex.test(jQuery(elem)[attr.method](attr.property));
}

Now you can use

$('div:regex(id,item-[0-9]-top)').hide()