How do I get the decimals of an erc20 contract when the decimals variable is not there?

Question

What is the best practice for doing this?
In the ERC20 standard having a public decimals: uint256 is marked as optional.
But obviously you cannot display a token balance in the UI without having the decimals.
So how should I handle the case where the decimals field is not there? Should I just assume the contract implements 18 decimals?
What is the standard here? Is it safe to say that 95% of contracts implement the decimals variable?

Lauri Peltonen · Answer

The concept of decimals is purely for user-friendliness - inside the blockchain there are no decimals. That's why it's optional.
If there are no decimals then you simply display what the token amount inside the contract shows - things get easier than with decimals. So it behaves like decimals was 0.
This concept is rather confusing for many people. You can read more for example here: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/a/72481/31933

How do I get the decimals of an erc20 contract when the decimals variable is not there?

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