Java iterator over an empty collection of a parameterized type

Question

In Java, I need to return an Iterator from my method. My data comes from another object which usually can give me an iterator so I can just return that, but in some circums

Answer 1

I'd go more along the lines of

public Iterator iterator() {
    if (underlyingData == null)
        return Collections. emptyList().iterator();
    return underlyingData.iterator();
}

Just, handle the special case and return, then handle the normal case. But my main point is that you can avoid the assignment with

Collections. emptyList().iterator();