Use org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.EMPTY
Why is there no String.Empty in Java? - Stack Overflow
In Java, should I use (String ) isEmpty() or isBlank() when checking an XML object for an empty value?
[java] String.split on tab is not registering empty strings with tabs in between
Can not enter empty string input in console java IntelliJ
Videos
Use org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.EMPTY
String.EMPTY is 12 characters, and "" is two, and they would both be referencing exactly the same instance in memory at runtime. I'm not entirely sure why String.EMPTY would save on compile time, in fact I think it would be the latter.
Especially considering Strings are immutable, it's not like you can first get an empty String, and perform some operations on it - best to use a StringBuilder (or StringBuffer if you want to be thread-safe) and turn that into a String.
Update
From your comment to the question:
What inspired this is actually
TextBox.setText("");
I believe it would be totally legitimate to provide a constant in your appropriate class:
private static final String EMPTY_STRING = "";
And then reference it as in your code as
TextBox.setText(EMPTY_STRING);
As this way at least you are explicit that you want an empty String, rather than you forgot to fill in the String in your IDE or something similar.
I have some config file and it is deployed in many regions. Some regions have certain requirements for example lets say one region needed a username and password (basic auth). The current setup is that each deployment has it's own config file and only the instances where it is needed are these values included in the respective config.xml file.
So I have in my Java code some logic that says
'if this element is in the XML, set the corresponding variable with its value, if not do nothing'
So when I'm trying to see if that value is present or if the tag is empty/blank, which String utility should I use to check?
example code (default option left open as empty string):
if (my_config.getString(USER_ID_ELEMENT, "") != null
& my_config.getString(PASSWORD_ELEMENT, "") != null) {
my_userId = m_config.getString(USER_ID_ELEMENT, "");
my_password = m_config.getString(PASSWORD_ELEMENT, "");Here I'm checking if it is not null, but I don't think it's a very good test since I don't know if an empty XML tag is blank or is empty (i think null isn't even an option)?