I don't like the OP code either. To someone not familiar with this language, || produces a boolean value (true or false), and that value gets assigned to param.

I don't like the OP code either. To someone not familiar with this language, || produces a boolean value (true or false), and that value gets assigned to param. A better approach would be (without knowledge of the language in particular): def method (object) param = default_param if object.property param = object.property end end Here, its clear that param has a default right away.