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.
Note: "Undefined variable" errors will show if PHP error_reporting() is E_ALL and a variable had not been assigned to Smarty.
See also default modifier and default variable handling.