Java PreparedStatement provides a possibility to explicitely set a Null value. This possibility is:
prepStmt.setNull(parameterIndex, Types.VARCHAR);
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This guide says:
6.1.5 Sending JDBC NULL as an IN parameter
The setNull method allows a programmer to send a JDBC NULL (a generic SQL NULL) value to the database as an IN parameter. Note, however, that one must still specify the JDBC type of the parameter.
A JDBC NULL will also be sent to the database when a Java null value is passed to a setXXX method (if it takes Java objects as arguments). The method setObject, however, can take a null value only if the JDBC type is specified.
So yes they're equivalent.