code: static public String normalize(String path, int format) {
  
          // if normalize is off, just return
          if (NORMALIZE_OFF == format || null == path) {
              return path;
          }
          String normalizedString = path;
          int len = path.length();
          // if there's no data, just return
          if (0 != len) {
              char[] buf = new char[len];
              path.getChars(0, len, buf, 0);
              for (int index = 0; index < len; index++) {
                  buf[index] = normalize(buf[index], format);
              }
              normalizedString = new String(buf, 0, len);
          }
  
          return normalizedString;
      }
docs: Normalize will convert a target String to the format that matches the
  keys in the tree (lowercase for example).
  
  @param path
  @param format
  @return String (the normalized version)