Is there a way to automatically initialize a variable if null

I have this code in jsp:

String foo = request.getParameter("bar");
if (foo == null) { 
    foo = ""; 
}

There are multiple values checked this way, now I am by no means an expert on java or jsp but have this code on my table. In other languages I would probably be able to do something like this:

String foo = request.getParameter("bar") || "";

I was really just wondering if there is an equivalent since I have some values which all needs checking so any ideas would be greatly appreciated. (It's really not a big issue, it's mostly just my tidy side preferring not to do multiple lines of checking for null, as it makes the code harder (imo) to read).

thanks in advance.