code: import java.util.regex.Pattern;
  
  public class CountSubstring {
  	public static int countSubstring(String subStr, String str){
  		// the result of split() will contain one more element than the delimiter
  		// the "-1" second argument makes it not discard trailing empty strings
  		return str.split(Pattern.quote(subStr), -1).length - 1;
  	}
  	
  	public static void main(String[] args){
  		System.out.println(countSubstring("th", "the three truths"));
  		System.out.println(countSubstring("abab", "ababababab"));
  		System.out.println(countSubstring("a*b", "abaabba*bbaba*bbab"));
  	}
  }
  