Checking object existence

Question

I need help optimizing some code.
Right now I have a conditional in my program. In one case a file object is created,
else, the file object is not created. In each case I manually set a flag.
boolean bfileCreated = true or false
Whenever I go to access the file object I check the boolean.
if (bfileCreated) {
work with object
However I think this is messy, I don't want to manually set a flag, and then have to check that flag
all the time. Is there a way to just detect is an object exissts?
Can I say something like
if (objMyObject.exists()) {
work with object
Assuming that objMyObject is declared in the class, and it may or may have not been initialized.
I guess that's what I want. Assuming all vars are declared, is there a way to test which
ones have been initialized?
// at global scope
obj myObj;
// sometimes myObj may get initialized
if (specialCondition) {
myObj = new whatever
// sometimes it may not
// later on in the class ...
// I want to know if myObj is initialized
if (myObj.hasValue())
or something like that?
How would I do it?
What methods are inherited by all java objects that allow for checking this ?
Thanks
Josh

Answer 1

Whats even stranger, is that is I just set a boolean, the compiler warns that
the object "may not be initialized" the compiler is correct, in some cases
the object will not be initialized. But why does the compiler care? I noticed that
if the comipler spits out messages, my class files aren't generated, thus I need
to keep the compiler from spitting out messages, so what I have to do is actually
create the File object in all cases.
See code
public void SaveMyStuff(String strFilePath) {
                int x, y;
                boolean boolFileCreated = false; // declare a flag for checking stuff
                File newFile; // declare a newFile var or type File, but dont initialize it yet
                try {
                        if (strFilePath == "") { // If no file name was passed in then show Save As dialog
                                JFileChooser fcSaveAs = new JFileChooser();
                                fcSaveAs.addChoosableFileFilter(new CDBFileFilter());
                                int returnVal = fcSaveAs.showSaveDialog(this);
                                if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
                                        newFile = fcSaveAs.getSelectedFile(); // newFile gets assigned
                                        boolFileCreated = true;
                                } else {
                                        //initialize File object or compiler will complain unless I do this
                                        newFile = new File("save.tmp");
                                        newFile.delete();
                        } else {
                                newFile = new File(strFilePath);
                                newFile.delete();
                                newFile.createNewFile();
                                boolFileCreated = true;
                        if (boolFileCreated) { // This flag indicates if a file object has been created
                                     //do stuff that I wouldn't do if File object didn't exist
                                     //the compiler complains if I just create the object
                                     //and dont set it, so in the case where i don't want a
                                     //file I have to actually assign , and then delete the file
                                     //I created
                                     //too bad the File constructors all require to create a file
                } catch (FileNotFoundException fnf) {
                        System.err.println("Unable to open file for writing: " + fnf.getMessage());
                } catch (IOException ioe) {
                        System.err.println("unable to buffer write file: " + ioe.getMessage());
        }Let me know if you see a better way to do this.
The file object can't be construvted without actually creating
a file. Its a lot of overhead since I delete it immedidately/
I would like to not even have to create the file or the boolean
in the else case, and then just check for the existence of the
object when I need to use it.
Thanks
Josh