Handy enhancement for ruby String: Defaults to default text

In my code , I repeat a lot this pattern: if the string is blank / empty, return a default text, otherwise return the original text.

final_text = text.blank? ? "default text" : text content_tag :h1, text.blank? ? "default text" : text, :class => 'mega'


I discovered this little gem in Stackoverflow (I lost the original source), you only need to reopen the String class, in an intializer, or decorator.

class String

  def defaults_to(what)
    self.strip!
    self.blank? ? what : self
  end

end

and, now you can use it in a readable form

text.defaults_to("default text")