SEARCH MATHEMATICA 8 DOCUMENTATION

THIS IS DOCUMENTATION FOR AN OBSOLETE PRODUCT.
SEE THE DOCUMENTATION CENTER FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION.

Mathematica > Core Language > Expressions > Parts of Expressions >

Built-in Mathematica Symbol

First

First[expr]
gives the first element in expr.

Extract the first element of a list:

Extract the first row of a matrix:

The head need not be List:

Extract the first element of a list:

Extract the first row of a matrix:

The head need not be List:

First works on SparseArray objects:

First[expr] is equivalent to expr[[1]]:

The expression is evaluated before First is applied:

First always operates on the FullForm of expressions: