All parts except the returning type pattern (ret-type-pattern in the snippet above), name pattern, and parameters pattern are optional. The returning type pattern determines what the return type of the method must be in order for a join point to be matched. Most frequently you will use * as the returning type pattern, which matches any return type. A fully-qualified type name will match only when the method returns the given type. The name pattern matches the method name. You can use the *

 wildcard as all or part of a name pattern. If specifying a declaring type pattern then include a trailing . to join it to the name pattern component. The parameters pattern is slightly more complex: () matches a method that takes no parameters, whereas (..) matches any number of parameters (zero or more). The pattern (*)matches a method taking one parameter of any type, (*,String) matches a method taking two parameters, the first can be of any type, the second must be a String. Consult the Language Semantics section of the AspectJ Programming Guide for more information.