question: public static String cleanUpPathPrefix ( String prefix ) { if ( UtilValidate . isEmpty ( prefix ) ) return "" ; StringBuilder cppBuff = new StringBuilder ( prefix . replace ( '\\' , '/' ) ) ; if ( cppBuff . charAt ( 0 ) != '/' ) { cppBuff . insert ( 0 , '/' ) ; } if ( cppBuff . charAt ( cppBuff . length ( ) - 1 ) == '/' ) { cppBuff . deleteCharAt ( cppBuff . length ( ) - 1 ) ; } return cppBuff . toString ( ) ; }
target:  Make sure the string starts with a forward slash but does not end with one; converts back-slashes to forward-slashes; if in String is null or empty, returns zero length string. 