ruby on rails - How to fix undefined method `split' for nil:NilClass error? -

i have following line in rails app:

@images = @product.secondary_images.split(",") 

when @product.secondary_images has content in it, runs fine. however, when there no content, error:

undefined method `split' nil:nilclass 

how can assign value @images if there no content in it?

a possible solution use try return nil in case method cannot sent secondary_images. , use or-operator assign else.

@images = @product.secondary_images.try(:split, ",") || 'some other value'