public static boolean isPrefix(String maybePrefix) {
    Preconditions.checkNotNull(maybePrefix);

    if (AccumuloHiveConstants.ASTERISK == maybePrefix.charAt(maybePrefix.length() - 1)) {
      if (maybePrefix.length() > 1) {
        return AccumuloHiveConstants.ESCAPE != maybePrefix.charAt(maybePrefix.length() - 2);
      } else {
        return true;
      }
    }

    // If we couldn't find an asterisk, it's not a prefix
    return false;
  }
Generate the proper instance of a ColumnMapping

@param columnSpec
         Specification for mapping this column to Accumulo
@param defaultEncoding
         The default encoding in which values should be encoded to Accumulo
accumulo-handler/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/accumulo/columns/ColumnMappingFactory.java