diff --git a/R/combine.R b/R/combine.R
index 962bccd..1bfcb4d 100644
--- a/R/combine.R
+++ b/R/combine.R
@@ -57,8 +57,7 @@ setMethod("combine", c("list", "missing"), \(x, y, ...) {
     # get current element names
     old <- lapply(x, \(z) unlist(colnames(z)))
     # get list names; if missing, use empty strings
-    if (is.null(nms <- names(x))) 
-        nms <- character(length(x))
+    nms <- names(x) %||% character(length(x))
     # prepend list names to element names where available
     new <- lapply(seq_along(x), \(i) {
         if (nms[i] == "") return(old[[i]])
diff --git a/R/crop.R b/R/crop.R
index 2b77e00..18b6b11 100644
--- a/R/crop.R
+++ b/R/crop.R
@@ -109,16 +109,6 @@ NULL
     # get transformation for space 'j'
     j <- .val_id(j, CTname(x))
     ct <- CTlist(x)[[j]]
-    # helper to adapt transformation data to spatial (XY) dims
-    axs <- axes(x)
-    nms <- vapply(axs, \(.) .$name, character(1))
-    ix <- match("x", nms)
-    iy <- match("y", nms)
-    if (is.na(ix) || is.na(iy)) {
-        # default to last two (YX)
-        n <- length(nms)
-        ix <- n; iy <- n-1
-    }
     ax <- .get_xy_axes(x)
     .adapt <- \(t, type) {
         if (is.null(t)) return(NULL)
diff --git a/R/sdArray.R b/R/sdArray.R
index 937546a..041cce0 100644
--- a/R/sdArray.R
+++ b/R/sdArray.R
@@ -120,7 +120,8 @@ setMethod("data_type", "DelayedArray", \(x) {
     if (is.null(v)) return()
     if (v == "0.5") x <- x$ome
     # NOTE: can't use 'vapply' as we 
-    # have encountered integer 'label's  
+    # have encountered integer 'label's
+    # Tracked in https://github.com/scverse/spatialdata/issues/1136
     x <- x$omero$channels
     x$label %||% unlist(lapply(x, `[[`, "label"))
 }
diff --git a/R/sdAttrs.R b/R/sdAttrs.R
index e70c4ca..ef86dae 100644
--- a/R/sdAttrs.R
+++ b/R/sdAttrs.R
@@ -216,8 +216,7 @@ setMethod("regions", "SingleCellExperiment", \(x) {
 #' @importFrom SingleCellExperiment int_metadata<-
 setReplaceMethod("region", c("SingleCellExperiment", "character"), \(x, value) {
     stopifnot(all(nchar(value) > 0, na.rm=TRUE))
-    if (is.null(rk <- region_key(x))) 
-        rk <- region_key(x) <- "region"
+    rk <- region_key(x) <- region_key(x) %||% "region"
     int_metadata(x)$spatialdata_attrs[[rk]] <- sort(unique(value))
     return(x)
 })
@@ -237,7 +236,7 @@ setReplaceMethod("region", c("SingleCellExperiment", "NULL"), \(x, value) {
 setReplaceMethod("regions", c("SingleCellExperiment", "character"), \(x, value) {
     stopifnot(length(value) %in% c(1, ncol(x)))
     stopifnot(all(nchar(value) > 0, na.rm=TRUE))
-    if (is.null(rk <- region_key(x))) region_key(x) <- "region"
+    rk <- region_key(x) <- region_key(x) %||% "region"
     int_metadata(x)$spatialdata_attrs[[rk]] <- sort(unique(value))
     int_colData(x)[[rk]] <- value
     return(x)
@@ -314,9 +313,7 @@ setMethod("instances", "SingleCellExperiment", \(x) {
 #' @rdname SpatialDataAttrs
 #' @importFrom SingleCellExperiment int_colData<-
 setReplaceMethod("instances", c("SingleCellExperiment", "ANY"), \(x, value) {
-    ik <- instance_key(x)
-    if (is.null(ik)) 
-        ik <- "instance_id"
+    ik <- instance_key(x) %||% "instance_id"
     int_colData(x)[[ik]] <- value
     return(x)
 })
diff --git a/R/sdFrame.R b/R/sdFrame.R
index c194d6a..bb69118 100644
--- a/R/sdFrame.R
+++ b/R/sdFrame.R
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ NULL
 #' @importFrom sf st_sf st_sfc st_as_sf st_point st_polygon
 .df_to_sf <- \(data, type=c("POINT", "POLYGON")) {
     type <- match.arg(type)
-    if (is.null(data) || isTRUE(nrow(data) == 0)) {
+    if (isTRUE(NROW(data) == 0)) {
         # return empty data.frame with geometry column
         fn <- switch(type, POINT=st_point, st_polygon)
         return(st_sf(geometry=st_sfc(fn())[0], crs=NA))
@@ -134,8 +134,7 @@ SpatialDataPoint <- \(data=NULL, meta=SpatialDataAttrs(type="frame"), metadata=l
     if (!is(data, "duckspatial_df")) 
         data <- .duck(data, "sdPoint")
     za <- as.list(meta)
-    if (is.null(za$spatialdata_attrs))
-        za$spatialdata_attrs <- list()
+    za$spatialdata_attrs <- za$spatialdata_attrs %||% list()
     if (!is.null(ik)) {
         stopifnot(ik %in% colnames(data))
         instance_key(za) <- ik
diff --git a/R/tables.R b/R/tables.R
index 8390ccd..cb3035e 100644
--- a/R/tables.R
+++ b/R/tables.R
@@ -182,8 +182,8 @@ setMethod("setTable", c("SpatialData", "character"), \(x, i, y,
     if (!. %in% c("labels", "shapes"))
         stop("can't add 'table' for", .)
     
-    if (is.null(region_key(y))) region_key(y) <- rk
-    if (is.null(instance_key(y))) instance_key(y) <- ik
+    region_key(y) <- region_key(y) %||% rk
+    instance_key(y) <- instance_key(y) %||% ik
     
     if (is.null(region(y))) {
         regions(y) <- i