question: private String asRegPattern ( String string ) { StringBuffer out = new StringBuffer ( string . length ( ) ) ; for ( int i = 0 , length = string . length ( ) ; i < length ; i ++ ) { char ch = string . charAt ( i ) ; if ( ch == '\\' ) { out . append ( "\\\\" ) ; } else if ( ch == '*' ) { out . append ( "\\*" ) ; } else { out . append ( ch ) ; } } return out . toString ( ) ; }
target:  Converts a non-regex string to a pattern that can be used with the regex search engine.