Java Optional.empty() is a static method in the Java Optional class that returns an empty Optional, which contains no value. It is often used to represent a value that is absent, as opposed to null. Introduced in Java 2014 with Java 8, empty() is commonly used to safely represent missing values without triggering NullPointerException and to facilitate cleaner code handling optional values.

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Optional.html