question: public static String stripEscape ( String pattern ) { if ( pattern == null ) return null ; StringBuilder stripped = new StringBuilder ( pattern . length ( ) ) ; for ( int pos = 0 ; pos < pattern . length ( ) ; pos ++ ) { char ch = pattern . charAt ( pos ) ; if ( ch != '\\' ) { stripped . append ( ch ) ; } else if ( pos < pattern . length ( ) - 1 && pattern . charAt ( pos + 1 ) == '\\' ) { stripped . append ( '\\' ) ; pos += 1 ; } } return stripped . toString ( ) ; }
target:  Strips all backslash-escapes from a string.