Ruby 2.3's safe navigation operator allows for a pretty nice "or else" construct.

nil_or_else_example.rb

module OrElse
  module ObjectImplementation
    def or_else(_)
      self
    end
  end
  module NilClassImplementation
    def or_else(val)
      val
    end
  end
end

class Object
  include OrElse::ObjectImplementation
end

class NilClass
  include OrElse::NilClassImplementation
end

# Example

user_hash = {id: nil}
user_hash[:id]&.or_else(1)
# => 1
user_hash[:id] = 2
user_hash[:id]&.or_else(1)
# => 2