Exception: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Pointcut is not well-formed Error?

Question

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Before;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Aspect
@Component
public class MyDemoLogginAspect {

    @Before("execution(* * add*())")
    public void beforeAddAccountAdvice(){

        System.out.println("Executing before");

    }
}

I am getting an exception of Caused by:

 java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Pointcut is not well-formed: expecting '(' at character position 14
execution(* * add*())

I need to know why the above pointcut expression is wrong?

Note: This error is coming after execution of the main class but there is nothing wrong with the main class and the error is instead within the pointcut expression

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 11 '20 at 17:00

Incorrect pointcut expression.

From the documentation .

The format of an execution expression is:

execution(modifiers-pattern? ret-type-pattern 
declaring-type-pattern?name-pattern(param-pattern)throws-pattern?)

The correct format for your example to work is

@Before("execution(* add*())")

The modifiers-pattern is optional and cannot be a wildcard (*) and should be one of public or protected . Details here

So the pointcut expression may also be

@Before("execution(public * add*())")

Also note that your pointcut expression is too global and can result in undesired result as kriegaex points out in this answer to another SO question

Exception: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Pointcut is not well-formed Error?

1 Answers1