String isNullOrEmpty in Java?

• StringUtils.isEmpty(str) or StringUtils.isNotEmpty(str)
• StringUtils.isBlank(str) or StringUtils.isNotBlank(str)

from Apache commons-lang.

The difference between empty and blank is : a string consisted of whitespaces only is blank but isn't empty.

I generally prefer using apache-commons if possible, instead of writing my own utility methods, although that is also plausible for simple ones like these.

No, which is why so many other libraries have their own copy :)

You can add one

public static boolean isNullOrBlank(String param) { 
    return param == null || param.trim().length() == 0;
}

I have

public static boolean isSet(String param) { 
    // doesn't ignore spaces, but does save an object creation.
    return param != null && param.length() != 0; 
}

In addition to the other answers, I ran across this because I'm a C# programmer primarily, but trying to keep fresh in Java. I noticed that when I tried to use StringUtils my IDE (Eclipse) imported it from com.mysql.jdbc.StringUtils which actually has an isNullOrEmpty(myStringObject) method.

ex.

import com.mysql.jdbc.StringUtils;

StringUtils.isNullOrEmpty(host)

Just another alternative for those who already have the MySQL connector referenced in your project, but not the other StringUtils library.

public static boolean isNull(String str) {
        return str == null ? true : false;
    }

    public static boolean isNullOrBlank(String param) {
        if (isNull(param) || param.trim().length() == 0) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

I've seen this method written a few times in projects I've been on but I have to say I've never written it myself, or called it either ... Generally I find null and empty are completely distinct conditions and I have no reason to ever conflate them.

For new projects, I've started having every class I write extend the same base class where I can put all the utility methods that are annoyingly missing from Java like this one, the equivalent for collections (tired of writing list != null && ! list.isEmpty()), null-safe equals, etc. I still use Apache Commons for the implementation but this saves a small amount of typing and I haven't seen any negative effects.