Returns a 3-element array of substrings of self.

Matches a pattern against self, scanning from the beginning. The pattern is:

• string_or_regexp itself, if it is a Regexp.

• Regexp.quote(string_or_regexp), if string_or_regexp is a string.

If the pattern is matched, returns pre-match, first-match, post-match:

'hello'.partition('l')      # => ["he", "l", "lo"]
'hello'.partition('ll')     # => ["he", "ll", "o"]
'hello'.partition('h')      # => ["", "h", "ello"]
'hello'.partition('o')      # => ["hell", "o", ""]
'hello'.partition(/l+/)     #=> ["he", "ll", "o"]
'hello'.partition('')       # => ["", "", "hello"]
'тест'.partition('т')       # => ["", "т", "ест"]
'こんにちは'.partition('に')  # => ["こん", "に", "ちは"]

If the pattern is not matched, returns a copy of self and two empty strings:

'hello'.partition('x') # => ["hello", "", ""]

Related: String#rpartition, String#split.