Ruby idiom: method call or else default

Because it hasn't been offered as an answer:

result = obj.method rescue default

As with @slhck, I probably wouldn't use this when I knew there was a reasonable chance that obj won't respond to method, but it is an option.

So you want something similar to x = obj.method || default? Ruby is an ideal language to build your own bottom-up constructions:

class Object
  def try_method(name, *args, &block)
    self.respond_to?(name) ? self.send(name, *args, &block) : nil     
  end
end

p "Hello".try_method(:downcase) || "default" # "hello"
p "hello".try_method(:not_existing) || "default" # "default"

Maybe you don't like this indirect calling with symbols? no problem, then look at Ick's maybe style and use a proxy object (you can figure out the implementation):

p "hello".maybe_has_method.not_existing || "default" # "default"

Side note: I am no OOP expert, but it's my understanding that you should know whether the object you are calling has indeed such method beforehand. Or is nil the object you want to control not to send methods to? Im this case Ick is already a nice solution: object_or_nil.maybe.method || default

I'd probably go for

obj.respond_to?(method) ? obj.__send__(method) : default