Head / String Layer

Extract the first N characters from each string. Similar to Python's str[:n] slicing. Useful for:

Creating preview text for long content
Extracting fixed-width prefixes
Truncating strings to specific length
Working with fixed-format data fields

Table

Select

column

The string column to extract characters from. Works with any text content.

N

i32

Number of characters (N) to keep. Examples:

Positive (3): takes first 3 characters (abc -> abc)
Negative (-2): takes all except last 2 characters (abcd -> ab)

Returns fewer characters if string is shorter than |N|

Name for the new column. If not provided, the system generates a unique name. If AsColumn matches an existing column, the existing column is replaced. The name should follow valid column naming conventions.