Apologies if I'm misunderstanding some points in kpd's post, but: http://www.rubycentral.com/ref/ref_c_array.html
[ ] arr[anInteger] -> anObject or nil arr[start, length] -> aSubArray or nil arr[aRange] -> aSubArray or nil Element Reference Returns the element at index anInteger, or returns a subarray starting at index start and continuing for length elements, or returns a subarray specified by aRange. Negative indices count backward from the end of the array (-1 is the last element). Returns nil if any indices are out of range. [ ]= arr[anInteger] = anObject -> anObject arr[start, length] = aSubArray -> aSubArray arr[aRange] = aSubArray -> aSubArray http://tryruby.hobix.com Interactive ruby ready. >> ck = Array [ 'C', 'K', 'S', 'vvg' ] => ["C", "K", "S", "vvg"] >> puts ck.first, ck[0], '*', ck.last, ck[-1] C C * vvg vvg => nil >> puts ck[0..2], '*', ck[-4..-2] C K S * C K S => nil >> puts ck.size, ck.length 4 4 => nil (The print elements in these example were actually printed on separate lines. I've put them on the same line for clarity and to save email space.) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list