diff -r 077af5bb5fa4 -r d4693bf78777 hotspot/src/share/vm/classfile/javaClasses.inline.hpp
--- a/hotspot/src/share/vm/classfile/javaClasses.inline.hpp	Tue Jan 03 17:17:14 2017 +0100
+++ b/hotspot/src/share/vm/classfile/javaClasses.inline.hpp	Tue Jan 03 21:36:05 2017 +0100
@@ -30,10 +30,8 @@
 #include "oops/oopsHierarchy.hpp"
 
 void java_lang_String::set_coder(oop string, jbyte coder) {
-  assert(initialized, "Must be initialized");
-  if (coder_offset > 0) {
-    string->byte_field_put(coder_offset, coder);
-  }
+  assert(initialized && (coder_offset > 0), "Must be initialized");
+  string->byte_field_put(coder_offset, coder);
 }
 
 void java_lang_String::set_value_raw(oop string, typeArrayOop buffer) {
@@ -61,15 +59,11 @@
   return java_string->int_field(hash_offset);
 }
 bool java_lang_String::is_latin1(oop java_string) {
-  assert(initialized, "Must be initialized");
+  assert(initialized && (coder_offset > 0), "Must be initialized");
   assert(is_instance(java_string), "must be java_string");
-  if (coder_offset > 0) {
-    jbyte coder = java_string->byte_field(coder_offset);
-    assert(CompactStrings || coder == CODER_UTF16, "Must be UTF16 without CompactStrings");
-    return coder == CODER_LATIN1;
-  } else {
-    return false;
-  }
+  jbyte coder = java_string->byte_field(coder_offset);
+  assert(CompactStrings || coder == CODER_UTF16, "Must be UTF16 without CompactStrings");
+  return coder == CODER_LATIN1;
 }
 int java_lang_String::length(oop java_string) {
   assert(initialized, "Must be initialized");