On 03/03/06, Mage <mage / mage.hu> wrote:
> a[2,a.size] works, but I find it ugly because the given length is larger
> than the real length of the result.
> a[2,a.size - 2] is okay, but it is not DRY.

How about the UTF-8-safe way:

a[/.{2}(.*)/u,1]

> Is there any elegant way ...

Oh, sorry :-)

Paul.