public static String stripCode(String columnMapping) {
    Preconditions.checkNotNull(columnMapping);

    int offset = columnMapping.lastIndexOf(AccumuloHiveConstants.POUND);
    if (-1 == offset
        || (0 < offset && AccumuloHiveConstants.ESCAPE == columnMapping.charAt(offset - 1))) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
          "Provided column mapping does not define a column encoding");
    }

    return columnMapping.substring(0, offset);
  }
Removes the column encoding code and separator from the original column mapping string. Throws
an IllegalArgumentException if this method is called on a string that doesn't contain a code.

@param columnMapping
         The mapping from Hive column to Accumulo column
@return The column mapping with the code removed
accumulo-handler/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/accumulo/columns/ColumnEncoding.java