String.equals() argument ordering

Question

I recently received a downvote for using the following in a recent answer:

String word = ...;
if (\"s\".equals(word) || \"y\".equals(word)

Answer 1

You can write

if (word != null && (word.equals("s") || word.equals("y")))

instead of

if ("s".equals(word) || "y".equals(word))

In this case, first one will never cause any NullpointerException, but in my point of view in this case the 2nd one is better, though it is in Yoda Condition