java - What is the difference between Collections.emptyList() and Collections.EMPTY_LIST

Question

In Java, we have Collections.emptyList() and Collections.EMPTY_LIST. Both have the same property:

Returns the empty list (immutable). This list is serializable.

So what is the exact difference between using the one or the other?

Answer 1

• Collections.EMPTY_LIST returns an old-style List
• Collections.emptyList() uses type-inference and therefore returns List<T>

Collections.emptyList() was added in Java 1.5 and it is probably always preferable. This way, you don't need to unnecessarily cast around within your code.

Collections.emptyList() intrinsically does the cast for you.

@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static final <T> List<T> emptyList() {
    return (List<T>) EMPTY_LIST;
}