Dock disappeared after I turned the computer power off overnight-solved through Launchpad

just got a new (for me) refurbished 2015 macbook air in 2022, set it up yesterday, used it for a while and then turned the power off (that's what I always dd with my previous 2010 Macbook and it lasted 12 years). When I turned the 2015 computer back on this AM, the dock was missing. It's got the Catalina 10.15 operating system. I tried everything recommended in Apple support and online and nothing worked: going to the dock icon in system preferences did nothing. The option to hide or show the dock was offscreen- you could not click on it at all. I finally went back to Finder (at the top of the desktop screen), clicked on "Go" , got to my applications and began pulling application icons onto my desktop. When I got to the Launchpad icon and clicked on it, my dock appeared and all the icons in Launchpad appeared at the same time above the dock. Keeping Launchpad open, I could access the icons on the dock. So I went back to system preferences through the dock, and went back to the dock icon. This time, the option to show or hide the dock was onscreen and selected. I unselected it. I assume this will solve the problem, but if the dock disappears again when I turn the power off, I can find it again through Launchpad. Hope this helps someone else!