question: private String stripLiteralChars ( String string ) { StringBuilder sb = null ; int last = 0 ; for ( int counter = 0 , max = string . length ( ) ; counter < max ; counter ++ ) { if ( isLiteral ( counter ) ) { if ( sb == null ) { sb = new StringBuilder ( ) ; if ( counter > 0 ) { sb . append ( string . substring ( 0 , counter ) ) ; } last = counter + 1 ; } else if ( last != counter ) { sb . append ( string . substring ( last , counter ) ) ; } last = counter + 1 ; } } if ( sb == null ) { return string ; } else if ( last != string . length ( ) ) { if ( sb == null ) { return string . substring ( last ) ; } sb . append ( string . substring ( last ) ) ; } return sb . toString ( ) ; }
target:  Removes the literal characters from the passed in string.