Can Java's Stream.collect() return null? : <p>The JavaDoc for Stream.collect() says that it returns <code>the result of the reduction</code>.  That doesn't tell me if code like this can return null for filteredList:</p>

<pre><code>List&lt;String&gt; filteredList = inputList.stream().
filter(c -&gt; c.getSomeBoolean()).
flatMap(c -&gt; {
  List&lt;String&gt; l = new ArrayList&lt;String&gt;();
  l.add(c.getSomething());
  l.add(c.getSomethingElse());
  return l.stream();
}).
filter(s -&gt; StringUtils.isNotBlank(s)).
collect(Collectors.toList());
</code></pre>

<p>I would expect that if it could return null then it would return Optional, but it doesn't say that either.</p>

<p>Is it documented anywhere whether Stream.collect() can return null?</p>
