Is it possible to create a nil value in an array using %w[] shorthand?

Question

Say I want to create an array with ["one", "two", nil], is it possible to do so using shorthand %w[] syntax? Obviously this does not work:

array = %w[one two nil]
=> ["one", "two", "nil"]
array[2].nil?
=> false

Ruby 1.9.3

Answer 1

No. The whole purpose of that convenience syntax is to avoid putting quotes around string literals, and the separator comma.

Answer 2

You could splat the %w[] array and put the nil after:

>> array = [ *%w[one two], nil, *%w[and some more words] ]
=> ["one", "two", nil, "and", "some", "more", "words"]

But that might be noisier than just quoting the strings individually; OTOH, the extra noise does indicate that something odd is going on so readers would be encouraged to look closer.