private static boolean patternHasWildCardChar(String pattern) {
    if (pattern == null) {
      return false;
    }
    for (char pc : pattern.toCharArray()) {
      if (wildCards.contains(pc)) {
        return true;
      }
    }
    return false;
  }
The function iterates through the list of wild card characters and sees if
this regular expression contains a wild card character.

@param pattern
         pattern expressed as a regular Expression
ql/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/ql/lib/RuleRegExp.java