Ruby string split unexpected result

Question

With this code:

"\t\ttest\t\t\t".split(/\t/)

I expect the following result:

 => ["", "", "test", "", "", ""]

But the result is:

=> ["", "", "test"]

Why?

Answer 1

If the limit parameter is omitted, trailing null fields are left off the returned array. If it is negative, they are returned:

# Supply -1 as the limit parameter
"\t\ttest\t\t\t".split(/\t/, -1)
=> ["", "", "test", "", "", ""]

This is detailed in the String.split() documentation.