Question: I have a variable which is the HTML of a UL, I was wondering if I can remove a few things from the variable but not the actual HTML of the UL..?? 

EG 

```
<ol class='sortable'>
    <li class="menu-item">
        <div>Allure</div>
        <ol>
            <li class="menu-item" style="display: list-item;">
                <div><a href="/_webapp_4002836/Allure-Gallery">Energy-Drink</a>      </div>
            </li>
        </ol>
    </li>

    <li class="menu-item disabled">
        <div>Bitten SJP</div>
        <ol>
            <li class="menu-item" style="display: list-item;">
                <div><a href="#">Bitten</a></div>
            </li>
        </ol>
    </li>
</ol>

```

My JQuery does this 

```
var sortableList = $(".sortable").html();

```

is there any way to do this 

```
var sortableList = $(".sortable").html("MINUS ALL CLASSES ".DISABLED");

```

Thanks for any answers

Answer: 
If you're trying to select all of a menu-item that is directly from `.sortable` that isn't disabled:

```
$(".sortable > .menu-item:not(.disabled)")

```
If you can ensure that the word `disabled` will not appear in somewhere in text it should be save to use `replace("disabled","")` on a *copy* of the string ie:

```

var sortableList = $(".sortable").html();
newSortable = sortableList.replace("disabled","");
$("body").append(newSortable)

```

But why can't you do it with `removeClass`?