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Maintenance Ruby 3.4 gets fixes, but no new features. Switch to Ruby 4.0 →

instance method

Hash#default

(?K arg0) -> V?
hash.default → object
hash.default(key) → object

Returns the default value for the given key. The returned value will be determined either by the default proc or by the default value. See Default Values.

With no argument, returns the current default value:

Example
h = {}
h.default # => nil

If key is given, returns the default value for key, regardless of whether that key exists:

Example
h = Hash.new { |hash, key| hash[key] = "No key #{key}"}
h[:foo] = "Hello"
h.default(:foo) # => "No key foo"