Javascript equivalent of Rails try method

Question

In Rails I can do this:

 x = user.try(:name)

this method returns nil if user is nil else user.name

Answer 1

Isn't that the same as what this gives you in Javascript:

user['name']
user.name

This returns undefined instead of nil but that's equivalent in most cases. I think the reason Rails needs the try method is because you cannot access instance variables unless they are made accessible.

To add to @PSL's approach, I usually do something like:

var x = user || {},
    y = x.name || {},
    z = y.first_name;