All but last element of Ruby array

Question

Let's say I have a Ruby array

a = [1, 2, 3, 4]

If I want all but the first item, I can write a.drop(1), which is great. If I want all but the last item, though, I can only think of this way

a[0..-2]   # or
a[0...-1]

but neither of these seem as clean as using drop. Any other built-in ways I'm missing?

Answer 1

Perhaps...

a = t               # => [1, 2, 3, 4]
a.first a.size - 1  # => [1, 2, 3]

or

a.take 3

or

a.first 3

or

a.pop

which will return the last and leave the array with everything before it

or make the computer work for its dinner:

a.reverse.drop(1).reverse

or

class Array
  def clip n=1
    take size - n
  end
end
a          # => [1, 2, 3, 4]
a.clip     # => [1, 2, 3]
a = a + a  # => [1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4]
a.clip 2   # => [1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2]