Further in my code, I check to see check if an object is null/empty.
Is there a way to set an object to null?
You can set any pointer to NULL, though NULL is simply defined as 0 in C++:
myObject *foo = NULL;
Also note that NULL is defined if you include standard headers, but is not built into the language itself. If NULL is undefined, you can use 0 instead, or include this:
#ifndef NULL
#define NULL 0
#endif
As an aside, if you really want to set an object, not a pointer, to NULL, you can read about the Null Object Pattern.