JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

JavaScript

// Experiment with the replace function and a lambda expression.

var str = "i am*happy all the*time",
    rex = [
        /(\S)\s*\*\s*(\S)/g
        ],
    i = 0,
    r = rex.length;

for (i; i < r; i += 1) {
    str.replace(rex[i], function(star, p1, p2) {
        console.log(i, star, p1, p2);
        return p1 + '\\s*(.*)\\s*' + p2;
    });
}

// should say:
// i am*\\s*(.*)\\s*happy all the\\s*(.*)\\s*time
document.body.innerHTML += str;