Can a check with has_key(d, k) and an immediate assignment be short circuited in vim script?

Question

I am wondering if it possible to short circuit the check for the existence of a key in a dict and an immediatly following assignment to a variable with that key if it exists. That is, if the following code can be abbreviated to something like let s:val = s:tq84_dict['foo'] || 'default' (which won't work in vim script)

if has_key(s:tq84_dict, 'foo')
  let s:val = s:tq84_dict['foo']
else
  let s:val = 'default'
endif

Answer 1

Use the get() function:

:echo get({}, 'foo', 'default')
default

:echo get({'foo': 'it is set'}, 'foo', 'default')
it is set

If you're familiar with Python, this is the same as {}.get('foo', 'default').

Another way would be to use the ternary if:

:let dict = {}
:let val = has_key({}, 'foo') ? dict['foo'] : 'default'
:echo val
default

:let dict = {'foo': 'it is set'}
:let val = has_key(dict, 'foo') ? dict['foo'] : 'default'
:echo val
it is set

But in this case get() is clearly the better way to do it.