Initialize a string to null or ""

Question

String s;
When we declare a variable with type String, we need to initialize it. Or we will get compile error "variable s might not have been initialized"
My question is which way we should do?
1) String s = null;
2) String s = "";
Or it really depends on our application needs?

Answer 1

In Java, the null reference is a value that indicates that the reference does not point to an object. You have to decide what semantics to give that value. If you want null to indicate that the value hasn't been set, you need an object to indicate that the value has been set to "blank".
In the case of a String, you could make a special String object:
public final BLANK_VALUE = new String();
and then use == to test for this object. Often, however, the empty String "" is used to indicate the value has been set to "blank".
But let me also state that if you are only trying to avoid "variable might not have been initialized" then you are basically not coding the right way
e.g
String s;
if (true)
s="VOW";
}this way you would get the error but then in this case rather than initializing and then putting in another value later a better practice would be
String s;
if (true)
s="VOW";
else
s="HELP"; //now you wouldnot get the error.