There may be times when you want to print a default value for an empty variable instead of printing nothing, such as printing   so that html table backgrounds work properly. Many would use an {if} statement to handle this, but there is a shorthand way with Smarty, using the default variable modifier.

{* the long way *}
{if $title eq ''}
    
{else}
   {$title}
{/if}

{* the short way *}
{$title|default:' '}

    

See also default modifier and default variable handling.