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

"pop"ing the first element of an Array is called "shift" ("unshift" being the operation of adding one element in front of the array).

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)

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]