If you believe that allocating zero-length arrays is harming performance, you can return the same zero-length array repeatedly because all zero-length arrays are immutable: Click here to view code image // Optimization - avoids allocating empty arrays private static final Cheese[] EMPTY_CHEESE_ARRAY = new Cheese[0]; public Cheese[] getCheeses() { return cheesesInStock.toArray(EMPTY_CHEESE_ARRAY); }
Why not return the empty immutable array directly (rather than "copying" no contents into the empty array)?
