Feature #6731 [add new method "Object.present?" as a counter to #empty?] Basically Object#present? , "An object is present if it’s not #empty?" [2] or, in other words, "is there any data inside?" Examples: >> [].present? => false >> [3].present? => true >> ''.present? => false # because it's #empty? >> 'a'.present? => true >> nil.present? => false Example usage: button.text=text if text.present? # I only care whether the text actually was set to something, and also don't want to worry about whether it's nil or not. Thanks. Basic implementation ([1]): class Object def present? !(respond_to?(:empty?) ? empty? : !self) end end [1] http://stackoverflow.com/a/4649452/32453 [2] http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/Object.html#method-i-present-3F they also use #blank but that's for a different feature request.