Count Asterisks

Count Asterisks: You are given a string s, where every two consecutive vertical bars ‘|’ are grouped into a pair. In other words, the 1st and 2nd ‘|’ make a pair, the 3rd and 4th ‘|’ make a pair, and so forth. Return the number of ‘*’ in s, excluding the ‘*’ between each pair of ‘|’. Note that each ‘|’ will belong to exactly one…