Question

I have seen two variations of pointcut patterns:

This

execution(* some.package.*.*(..))

and this

execution(* some.package.* *(..))

What is the meaning of the dot (or of it absence) between the last two *’s?

Answer 1

This appendix defines grammar of the pointcut expression langauge. For the execution expression the rule is the following:

execution(MethodPattern)

where

MethodPattern = 
  [ModifiersPattern] TypePattern 
        [TypePattern . ] IdPattern (TypePattern | ".." , ... ) 
        [ throws ThrowsPattern ]

That means that if you have 3 expressions (separated by space) before “(“, then the first is modifier, second is class and third is method name. But if you have 2 expressions before “(“, then first will be class and second will be method name.