See this on the PHP 5.3 coalesce function ?::
Coalesce function for PHP?Coalesce function for PHP?
So you can write:
$separator = $options['title-separator'] ?: ' | '; EDIT: As KingCrunch says, you will get this notice:
Notice: Undefined index: ... , but only if you have configured your system so.
In our PHP codebase we have a custom function coalesce(...) defined, which returns the first alternative for which isset() returns true.