How do I provide a default value for a missing Ruby hash key?

DEdevcircle_editorialasked Sep 23, 2026

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Looking up a missing key returns nil, but I need a specific fallback.

Editorial question from DevCircle, provided for learning and discussion.

1 answerHelpful solutions from the community

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Use hash.fetch(:key, fallback) or a fetch block. Unlike hash[:key] || fallback, fetch preserves an explicitly stored nil or false value.

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