diff --git a/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerCallableStatement.java b/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerCallableStatement.java
index 966718833..76eabac63 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerCallableStatement.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerCallableStatement.java
@@ -1311,7 +1311,7 @@ private int findColumn(String columnName) throws SQLServerException {
         // handle `@name` as well as `name`, since `@name` is what's returned
         // by DatabaseMetaData#getProcedureColumns
         String columnNameWithoutAtSign = null;
-        if (columnName.charAt(0) == '@') {
+        if (columnName.startsWith("@")) {
             columnNameWithoutAtSign = columnName.substring(1, columnName.length());
         } else {
             columnNameWithoutAtSign = columnName;
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerConnection.java b/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerConnection.java
index 2fe9dfde0..2cfe72ca0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerConnection.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/microsoft/sqlserver/jdbc/SQLServerConnection.java
@@ -3930,7 +3930,7 @@ final void processEnvChange(TDSReader tdsReader) throws SQLServerException {
                 String currentHostName = activeConnectionProperties.getProperty("hostNameInCertificate");
 
                 // skip the check for hostNameInCertificate if routingServerName is null
-                if (null != currentHostName && currentHostName.charAt(0) == '*' && (null != routingServerName)
+                if (null != currentHostName && currentHostName.startsWith("*") && (null != routingServerName)
                         && routingServerName.indexOf('.') != -1) {
                     char[] currentHostNameCharArray = currentHostName.toCharArray();
                     char[] routingServerNameCharArray = routingServerName.toCharArray();