checkNonnegative(occurrences, "occurrences");
      if (occurrences == 0) {
        return count(element);
      }

      Collection<V> values = Maps.safeGet(multimap.asMap(), element);

      if (values == null) {
        return 0;
      }

      int oldCount = values.size();
      if (occurrences >= oldCount) {
        values.clear();

      checkNonnegative(occurrences, "occurrences");
      if (occurrences == 0) {
        return count(element);
      }

      Collection<V> values = Maps.safeGet(multimap.asMap(), element);

      if (values == null) {
        return 0;
      }

      int oldCount = values.size();
      if (occurrences >= oldCount) {
        values.clear();

 * strings. This only supports the {@code "%s"} specifier, not the full range of {@link
 * java.util.Formatter} specifiers. However, note that if the number of arguments does not match the
 * number of occurrences of {@code "%s"} in the format string, {@code Preconditions} will still
 * behave as expected, and will still include all argument values in the error message; the message
 * will simply not be formatted exactly as intended.
 *