title: Is making an empty string constant worth it?
body: <p>I have a co-worker that swears by</p>
  
  <pre><code>//in a singleton "Constants" class
  public static final String EMPTY_STRING = "";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in a constants class available throughout the project. That way, we can write something like</p>
  
  <pre><code>if (Constants.EMPTY_STRING.equals(otherString)) {
      ...
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>instead of </p>
  
  <pre><code>if ("".equals(otherString)) {
      ...
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I say it's </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>not worth it--it doesn't save any space in the heap/stack/string pool,</li>
  <li>ugly</li>
  <li>abuse of a constants class.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Who is the idiot here?</p>