This will work with both maps and keywords: iex(1)> foo = %{a: 1, b: "test"} %{a: 1, b: "test"} iex(2)> foo[:bar] || :some_default_value :some_

This will work with both maps and keywords: iex(1)> foo = %{a: 1, b: "test"} %{a: 1, b: "test"} iex(2)> foo[:bar] || :some_default_value :some_default_value iex(3)> foo = [a: 1, b: "test"] [a: 1, b: "test"] iex(4)> foo[:bar] || :some_default_value :some_default_value This looks like some Perl-ism/Ruby-ism. I personally dislike truth-y/false-y values, as they do more harm than good, and making it harder for dialyzer to infer boolean types. Also Map.get/3 and Keyword.get/3 are probably faster.