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Asked: 2026-05-23T01:45:05+00:00

When trying to access an element deep in an array of arrays, what is

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When trying to access an element deep in an array of arrays, what is the best way to avoid getting the error ‘undefined method `[]’ for nil:NilClass’ if an element doesn’t exist?

For example I’m currently doing this, but it seems bad to me:

if @foursquare['response']['groups'][0].present? && @foursquare['response']['groups'][0]['items'].present?
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Depending on your array content, you can omit the .present?. Ruby will also just take the last value in such a construct, so you can omit the if statement.

    @foursquare['response']['groups'][0] &&
@foursquare['response']['groups'][0]['items'] &&
@foursquare['response']['groups'][0]['items'][42]

    More elegant solutions for this problem are the egonil (blog post), the andand gem (blog post), or even Ruby 2.3’s safe navigation operator.

    Update: Recent Rubies include the #dig method, which might be helpful in this case. See user513951‘s answer for more details.

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