The same error comes when the regex is “+”

Here is the solution.

Enclose your * and + within square brackets.

Here is my code.

public static final String [] wildCards={"[*]","%","@","&","[+]"};

public static void main(String[] args) { String s="!@#$%^&*()"; s=stripWild(s, wildCards); System.out.println(s); }