Ruby: What is the easiest way to remove the first element from an array?

Question

Lets say I have an array

[0, 132, 432, 342, 234] 

What is the easiest way to get rid of the first element? (0)

Answer 1

Use .drop(1).

This has the benefit of returning a new Array with the first element removed, as opposed to using .shift, which returns the removed element, not the Array with the first element removed.

NOTE: It does not affect/mutate the original Array.

a = [0,1,2,3]  a.drop(1) # => [1, 2, 3]   a # => [0,1,2,3] 

And, additionally, you can drop more than the first element:

[0,1,2,3].drop(2) => [2, 3]  [0,1,2,3].drop(3) => [3]  

Answer 2

Use the shift method on array

>> x = [4,5,6] => [4, 5, 6]                                                             >> x.shift  => 4 >> x                                                                     => [5, 6]  

If you want to remove n starting elements you can use x.shift(n)