[Rails] Best practise for setting default URL parameters in the controller

I've been trying to set default URL parameters in the controller, which will also be used within the view. This is what I've got:

@params = params

defaults = { :date_from => '21/1/21014', :date_to => '21/2/21014', :data=>"Expense" }
if @params.any?
  @params = defaults.merge(@params)
else
  @params = defaults
end

.. seems messy, and doesn't work :( When params are present it still uses the default params. Not sure where it's going wrong and search on google yields many varieties. I know using default values in methods is something that I will repeat again so I was wondering what the best practise is for handling this. Thanks

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