nice way to find or not a value (problem with numeric(0))

Hello,

I have a data.frame called spec containing data about samples. But I don't
have these data for all my samples.
So if I have data (that is code of the sample is in spec$Code), I would like
to assign data1 to the variable m.
If I don't have this data, I would like to assign 1 to m.

I tried this : 
m<-spec$data1[spec$Code==code]*(code %in%specmodules$Code) + 1*(!code %in%
specmodules$Code) 

It works when I have the data but if it is not the case I get numeric(0)
instead of 1.

I finally use the following command. It works but I'm sure there is a more
elegant way.
if (code %in%spec$Code) m<-spec$data1[spec$Code==code] else m<-1

Is there a way to avoid an if-test ?

Thanks for your help,
Have a good day,
Ptit Bleu.

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