Can a method know how many output values ​​are expected from it?

Question

ruby

Suppose there is a method that returns two values.

def connect()
  return [1, nil]
end

To get values ​​into different variables, we call the method like this:

a, b = connect() 
# => a == 1
# => b == nil

If you specify only one variable, then an array will fall into it:

a = connect() 
# => a == [1, nil]

Is there a possibility when, when specifying two variables, they would be filled as usual, and when specifying one variable, only the first element of the array would fall into it.
An example, as I want (it will not work in this form):

a = connect() 
# => a == 1

Answer 1

What's the problem?

def f()
  [1] # или [1, 2], или [1, 2, 3]
end

a, _ = f()
p a # выведет 1 по-любому