code: private static String discardBeginningHyphen(String string) {
  		String noHyphenString = string;
  		if (string.startsWith("-")) {
  			noHyphenString = string.substring(1); // Oh well, just throw away
  													// the awful "-". No one
  													// will ever notice...
  		}
  		return noHyphenString;
  	}
docs: Removes the beginning hyphen from the string, if any.
  
  @param string
  the string that will have the beginning hyphen removed
  @return the string without the beginning hyphen