FreeAndNil() and Assigned() debate is coming up soon blogs.embarcadero.com/freeandnil-del…

This may seem like simple topic, but in order to discuss when and whether one should use FreeAndNil() and Assigned(), we need to understand related, more complex processes happening in our code. In Delphi object references are generally not automatically initialized to zero (nil).
Only class fields, object instance fields and global variables are automatically initialized.
Local object references and record fields are not initialized.