Kotlin – Get First Character in String

Get first character in String in Kotlin

To get the first character in given string in Kotlin, you can use String.first() function.

Call the first() function on the given string str.

str.first()

The function returns the first character in the string. But, if the string is empty, the function throws NoSuchElementException.

Examples

Get first character in the string

In the following program, we take a string in str and get the first character in this string using String.first() function.

Kotlin Program

fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val str = "Hello World"
    val firstChar = str.first()
    println("First Character : $firstChar")
}

Output

First Character : H

Check if string is not empty before getting the first character

We can make a check if the string is not empty, and then get the first character. This way we can make sure that no Exception is thrown, and also we can look into doing something when the string is empty.

Kotlin Program

fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val str = "Hello World"
    if (str.isNotEmpty()) {
        val firstChar = str.first()
        println("First Character : $firstChar")
    } else {
        println("String is empty.")
    }
}

Output

First Character : H