Type-safe, generic, empty Collections with static generics
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        Published on 2010-04-12T21:26:31Z
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            21:32 UTC
        
        
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java
|collections
I return empty collections vs. null whenever possible. I switch between two methods for doing so using java.util.Collections:
return Collections.EMPTY_LIST;
return Collections.emptyList();
where emptyList() is supposed to be type-safe.  But I recently discovered:
return Collections.<ComplexObject> emptyList();
return Collections.<ComplexObject> singletonList(new ComplexObject());
etc.
I see this method in Eclipse Package Explorer:
<clinit> () : void
but I don't see how this is done in the source code (1.5). How is this magic tomfoolerie happening!!
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