myquery = util.substitute("s|\\(\\*|\\(|", myquery); myquery = util.substitute("s|:\\*|:|", myquery);
    static String stripAsterisk( String myquery )    {		// query strings (or words) begining with "*" cause a null pointer error                 Perl5Util util = new Perl5Util();                myquery = util.substitute("s/^\\*//", myquery);        myquery = util.substitute("s| \\*| |", myquery);        return myquery;    }