public static boolean hasColumnEncoding(String columnMapping) {
    Preconditions.checkNotNull(columnMapping);

    int offset = columnMapping.lastIndexOf(AccumuloHiveConstants.POUND);

    // Make sure that the '#' wasn't escaped
    if (0 < offset && AccumuloHiveConstants.ESCAPE == columnMapping.charAt(offset - 1)) {
      // The encoding name/codes don't contain pound signs
      return false;
    }

    return -1 != offset;
  }
Determines if a custom encoding was specified for the give column.

@param columnMapping
         The mapping from Hive column to an Accumulo column
@return True if the column mapping string specifies an encoding, false otherwise
accumulo-handler/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/accumulo/columns/ColumnEncoding.java