Kernel#present?

Added in v3.1 · Updated March 13, 2026 · Kernel Methods

ruby rails activesupport boolean

present? is a Rails/ActiveSupport method available on all objects. It returns true unless the object is nil or “blank.”

Description

The present? method is part of ActiveSupport’s Core Extensions, which add useful methods to Ruby’s built-in objects. Unlike Ruby’s native nil?, which only checks for nil, present? also detects blank values like empty strings, empty arrays, and empty hashes.

This method is the opposite of blank?. If object.blank? returns true, then object.present? returns false, and vice versa.

Signature

object.present?

Return Value

Returns true if the object is not nil and not blank. Returns false otherwise.

What is “blank”?

An object is considered blank if it is any of the following:

nil
false
An empty string ("" or '')
An empty array ([]) or hash ({})
A string containing only whitespace (unless you include the whitespace extension)

Parameters

This method takes no parameters.

Examples

Basic Usage

"hello".present?      # => true
"".present?          # => false
nil.present?         # => false
[1, 2, 3].present?   # => true
[].present?          # => false
{}.present?          # => false

In Conditionals

present? is commonly used in Rails views and controllers:

if params[:search].present?
  @results = SearchService.call(params[:search])
end

# More concise than:
# if params[:search] && params[:search].strip != ""

With Associations

# Check if a user has any posts
if current_user.posts.present?
  render @current_user.posts
end

Comparison with Ruby Native Methods

# Ruby native - only checks nil
"hello".nil?    # => false
nil.nil?        # => true
"".nil?         # => false (empty string is NOT nil)

# Rails present? - checks nil AND blank
"hello".present?    # => true
nil.present?        # => false
"".present?         # => false

Common Patterns

Use the safe navigation operator (&.) when you’re unsure if an object might be nil:

current_user&.name&.present?
# This won't raise NoMethodError if current_user is nil

Combining with Other Methods

# reject blank values from an array
[1, "", nil, 2, "  "].reject(&:blank?)
# => [1, 2]

# select only present values
[nil, "a", "", "b"].select(&:present?)
# => ["a", "b"]