diff --git a/opennlp-morfologik-addon/src/main/java/opennlp/morfologik/cmdline/CLI.java b/opennlp-morfologik-addon/src/main/java/opennlp/morfologik/cmdline/CLI.java
index adf0ebe50..0cd68d183 100644
--- a/opennlp-morfologik-addon/src/main/java/opennlp/morfologik/cmdline/CLI.java
+++ b/opennlp-morfologik-addon/src/main/java/opennlp/morfologik/cmdline/CLI.java
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ private static void usage() {
     final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("where TOOL is one of: \n\n");
     for (CmdLineTool tool : toolLookupMap.values()) {
 
-      sb.append("  " + tool.getName());
+      sb.append("  ").append(tool.getName());
       sb.append(" ".repeat(Math.max(0, StrictMath.abs(
               tool.getName().length() - numberOfSpaces))));
       sb.append(tool.getShortDescription()).append("\n");
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/ChunkSampleStream.java b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/ChunkSampleStream.java
index ad68c348c..2bc23eedf 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/ChunkSampleStream.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/ChunkSampleStream.java
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ public ChunkSample read() throws IOException {
     List<String> tags = new ArrayList<>();
     List<String> preds = new ArrayList<>();
 
-    for (String line = samples.read(); line != null && !line.equals(""); line = samples.read()) {
+    for (String line = samples.read(); line != null && !line.isEmpty(); line = samples.read()) {
       String[] parts = line.split(" ");
       if (parts.length != 3) {
         logger.error("Skipping corrupt line: {}", line);
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/entitylinker/EntityLinkerFactory.java b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/entitylinker/EntityLinkerFactory.java
index 244f046d2..ee28b8115 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/entitylinker/EntityLinkerFactory.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/entitylinker/EntityLinkerFactory.java
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ public static synchronized EntityLinker<?> getLinker(String entityType, EntityLi
 
     String linkerImplFullName = properties.getProperty("linker." + entityType, "");
 
-    if (linkerImplFullName == null || linkerImplFullName.equals("")) {
+    if (linkerImplFullName == null || linkerImplFullName.isEmpty()) {
       throw new IllegalArgumentException("linker." + entityType + "  property must be set!");
     }
 
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ public static synchronized EntityLinker<?> getLinker(EntityLinkerProperties prop
 
     String linkerImplFullName = properties.getProperty("linker", "");
 
-    if (linkerImplFullName == null || linkerImplFullName.equals("")) {
+    if (linkerImplFullName == null || linkerImplFullName.isEmpty()) {
       throw new IllegalArgumentException("\"linker\" property must be set!");
     }
 
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/LemmaSampleStream.java b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/LemmaSampleStream.java
index 69a28c8e1..d84fc715f 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/LemmaSampleStream.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/LemmaSampleStream.java
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ public LemmaSample read() throws IOException {
     List<String> tags = new ArrayList<>();
     List<String> preds = new ArrayList<>();
 
-    for (String line = samples.read(); line != null && !line.equals(""); line = samples.read()) {
+    for (String line = samples.read(); line != null && !line.isEmpty(); line = samples.read()) {
       String[] parts = line.split("\t");
       if (parts.length != 3) {
         logger.warn("Skipping corrupt line: {}", line);
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/DefaultSDContextGenerator.java b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/DefaultSDContextGenerator.java
index c62d7604e..f4f17d771 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/DefaultSDContextGenerator.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/DefaultSDContextGenerator.java
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ protected void collectFeatures(String prefix, String suffix, String previous,
     buf.append(prefix);
     collectFeats.add(buf.toString());
     buf.setLength(0);
-    if (!prefix.equals("")) {
+    if (!prefix.isEmpty()) {
       collectFeats.add(Integer.toString(prefix.length()));
       if (isFirstUpper(prefix)) {
         collectFeats.add("xcap");
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ protected void collectFeatures(String prefix, String suffix, String previous,
     buf.append(previous);
     collectFeats.add(buf.toString());
     buf.setLength(0);
-    if (!previous.equals("")) {
+    if (!previous.isEmpty()) {
       if (isFirstUpper(previous)) {
         collectFeats.add("vcap");
       }
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ protected void collectFeatures(String prefix, String suffix, String previous,
     buf.append(suffix);
     collectFeats.add(buf.toString());
     buf.setLength(0);
-    if (!suffix.equals("")) {
+    if (!suffix.isEmpty()) {
       if (isFirstUpper(suffix)) {
         collectFeats.add("scap");
       }
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ protected void collectFeatures(String prefix, String suffix, String previous,
     buf.append(next);
     collectFeats.add(buf.toString());
     buf.setLength(0);
-    if (!next.equals("")) {
+    if (!next.isEmpty()) {
       if (isFirstUpper(next)) {
         collectFeats.add("ncap");
       }
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/SentenceSampleStream.java b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/SentenceSampleStream.java
index a419a6d34..135dc1a6c 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/SentenceSampleStream.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/sentdetect/SentenceSampleStream.java
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-
 package opennlp.tools.sentdetect;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -48,7 +47,7 @@ public SentenceSample read() throws IOException {
     List<Span> sentenceSpans = new LinkedList<>();
 
     String sentence;
-    while ((sentence = samples.read()) != null && !sentence.equals("")) {
+    while ((sentence = samples.read()) != null && !sentence.isEmpty()) {
       int begin = sentencesString.length();
       sentence = sentence.trim();
       sentence = replaceNewLineEscapeTags(sentence);
@@ -58,9 +57,8 @@ public SentenceSample read() throws IOException {
       sentencesString.append(' ');
     }
 
-    if (sentenceSpans.size() > 0) {
-      return new SentenceSample(sentencesString.toString(),
-          sentenceSpans.toArray(new Span[0]));
+    if (!sentenceSpans.isEmpty()) {
+      return new SentenceSample(sentencesString.toString(), sentenceSpans.toArray(new Span[0]));
     }
     return null;
   }
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/util/ParagraphStream.java b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/util/ParagraphStream.java
index d5b523ab4..4ccb15cde 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/util/ParagraphStream.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/main/java/opennlp/tools/util/ParagraphStream.java
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ public String read() throws IOException {
       // The last paragraph in the input might not
       // be terminated well with a new line at the end.
 
-      if (line == null || line.equals("")) {
+      if (line == null || line.isEmpty()) {
         if (paragraph.length() > 0) {
           return paragraph.toString();
         }
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/DummyChunkSampleStream.java b/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/DummyChunkSampleStream.java
index 63fc00517..17afbb18c 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/DummyChunkSampleStream.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/chunker/DummyChunkSampleStream.java
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ public ChunkSample read() throws IOException {
     List<String> chunkTags = new ArrayList<>();
     List<String> predictedChunkTags = new ArrayList<>();
 
-    for (String line = samples.read(); line != null && !line.equals(""); line = samples
+    for (String line = samples.read(); line != null && !line.isEmpty(); line = samples
         .read()) {
       String[] parts = line.split(" ");
       if (parts.length != 4) {
diff --git a/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/DummyLemmaSampleStream.java b/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/DummyLemmaSampleStream.java
index d470f833e..9ac78015e 100644
--- a/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/DummyLemmaSampleStream.java
+++ b/opennlp-tools/src/test/java/opennlp/tools/lemmatizer/DummyLemmaSampleStream.java
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ public LemmaSample read() throws IOException {
     List<String> predictedLemmas = new ArrayList<>();
 
     for (String line = samples.read(); line != null
-        && !line.equals(""); line = samples.read()) {
+        && !line.isEmpty(); line = samples.read()) {
       String[] parts = line.split("\t");
       if (parts.length != 4) {
         logger.warn("Skipping corrupt line {}: {}", count, line);