Checking if a collection is empty in Java: which is the best method?

Question

I have two ways of checking if a List is empty or not

if (CollectionUtils.isNotEmpty(listName)) 

and

if (listName != null          


        

Answer 1

Apache Commons' CollectionUtils.isNotEmpty(Collection) is a NULL-SAFE check

Returns TRUE is the Collection/List is not-empty and not-null Returns FALSE if the Collection is Null

Example:

List properties = new ArrayList();
...
if (CollectionUtils.isNotEmpty(properties)) {
  // process the list
} else {
 // list is null or empty
}

Refer: https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-collections/apidocs/org/apache/commons/collections4/CollectionUtils.html#isNotEmpty(java.util.Collection)