Array#split behaviour when accessing beyond the array boundry.

Question

An irb session is following:

>> ar = [:peanute, :butter, :and, :jelly]
=> [:peanute, :butter, :and, :jelly]
>> ar[0, 1]
=> [:peanute]
>> ar[4, 1]
=> []
>> ar[5, 1]
=> nil

Why ar[4, 1] does not return nil just like ar[5, 1]? Would someone explain this behaviour?

Answer 1

This is mentioned in the documentation as a special case.