How to avoid NoMethodError for missing elements in nested hashes, without repeated nil checks?

Ruby 2.3.0 introduced a new method called dig on both Hash and Array that solves this problem entirely.

name = params.dig(:company, :owner, :name)

It returns nil if the key is missing at any level.

If you are using a version of Ruby older than 2.3, you can use the ruby_dig gem or implement it yourself:

module RubyDig
  def dig(key, *rest)
    if value = (self[key] rescue nil)
      if rest.empty?
        value
      elsif value.respond_to?(:dig)
        value.dig(*rest)
      end
    end
  end
end

if RUBY_VERSION < '2.3'
  Array.send(:include, RubyDig)
  Hash.send(:include, RubyDig)
end

The best compromise between functionality and clarity IMO is Raganwald's andand. With that, you would do:

params[:company].andand[:owner].andand[:name]

It's similar to try, but reads a lot better in this case since you're still sending messages like normal, but with a delimiter between that calls attention to the fact that you're treating nils specially.

I don't know if that's what you want, but maybe you could do this?

name = params[:company][:owner][:name] rescue nil