Collections.emptyMap() vs new HashMap()

Question

What are some of the situations where I can use Collections.emptyMap() ? The Documentation says I can use this method if I want my collection to be immutable. <

Answer 1

It can be useful when you have a function that returns an immutable collection and in some situation there is no data to return so instead of returning null you can return emptyMap()

It make your code easier and prevent NullPointerException