/* Given a string, if the first or last chars are 'x', return the string * without those 'x' chars, and otherwise return the string unchanged. */ public String withoutX(String str) { int begin = 0; int end = str.length(); if(str.length() > 0 && str.charAt(0) == 'x') begin = 1; if(str.length() > 1 && str.charAt(str.length() - 1) == 'x') end--; return str.substring(begin, end); }