first

This function returns a text string corresponding to the first length characters of the input text string.

Syntax

first( input, length, [pad] )

Parameters

• input—Specifies the input text string. If the input text string is shorter than the integer value specified in the length parameter then the output is right-padded (that is, the string text is left-justified) with padding characters.

• length—Specifies the number of characters in the string to retain, counting from left to right.

• pad—If the pad character is supplied, it is a string defining the padding character; if the parameter is not supplied, the default padding character is the space ' '.

Remarks

The input text string can be another field mapping grammar function.