engfer(s)

If you are going to use a String equality comparison that involves a hardcoded string, you might as well save yourself from some NullPointerExceptions and the extra null pointer check, put the hardcoded string as the method call-e instead of the parameter.

Instead of:

if ( foo.equals( "some static string" ) ){...}

or...

if ( foo != null && foo.equals( "some static string" ) ){...}

use:

if ( "some static string".equals( foo ) ){...}