*
   * @since 11.0
   */
  public static String commonPrefix(CharSequence a, CharSequence b) {
    checkNotNull(a);
    checkNotNull(b);

    int maxPrefixLength = min(a.length(), b.length());
    int p = 0;
    while (p < maxPrefixLength && a.charAt(p) == b.charAt(p)) {
      p++;
    }
    if (validSurrogatePairAt(a, p - 1) || validSurrogatePairAt(b, p - 1)) {
      p--;
    }