From: Matt Armstrong <matt+dated+1007858163.c2c22b@...>
Date: 2001-11-09T09:36:07+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:24718] Re: Strange behaviour of Array#[]

Dave Thomas <Dave@PragmaticProgrammer.com> writes:

> Michael Neumann <neumann@s-direktnet.de> writes:
>
>> Why does a[3,1] returns [] instead of nil?
>
> I believe it's for consistency with Strings:
>
>    irb(main):001:0> a = "cat"
>    "cat"
>    irb(main):002:0> a[2,1]
>    "t"
>    irb(main):003:0> a[3,1]
>    ""
>    irb(main):004:0> a[4,1]
>    nil
>
> There was a thread a long, long time ago where this was explained as
> being rational, and everyone nodded...

If strings do it, it may be rational for arrays to do it too.

But I wonder why it is rational for strings?


-- 
matt