# Return first/last/mid characters of a keyword field

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/return-first-last-mid-characters-of-a-keyword-field/306372>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Tags:** painless\
**Created:** [June 4, 2022, 6:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/return-first-last-mid-characters-of-a-keyword-field/306372 "2022-06-04T06:39:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![behappy\_alwayz0401](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/behappy_alwayz0401/32/105988_2.png) [@behappy\_alwayz0401](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/behappy_alwayz0401)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2022, 6:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/return-first-last-mid-characters-of-a-keyword-field/306372/1 "2022-06-04T06:39:38Z")

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I have a field account name that has string values with spaces. I would like to return the first 5 and last 4 characters of each value in this field in a runtime painless field. how can this be done? thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jsanz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jsanz/32/53734_2.png) [@jsanz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jsanz)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/return-first-last-mid-characters-of-a-keyword-field/306372/2 "2022-06-28T14:25:01Z")

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Just use the [`substring`](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#substring(int)) method on the value, so something like this should work:

```auto
String desc = doc['desc.keyword'].value;
emit(desc.substring(desc.length() - 5))

```

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/4/b/4b288355f5f02af1b804cd52f6de54981387ca2d.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![behappy\_alwayz0401](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/behappy_alwayz0401/32/105988_2.png) [@behappy\_alwayz0401](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/behappy_alwayz0401)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 5:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/return-first-last-mid-characters-of-a-keyword-field/306372/3 "2022-06-29T05:24:46Z")

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> [@jsanz](#):
>
> ```auto
> String desc = doc['desc.keyword'].value;
> emit(desc.substring(desc.length() - 5))
> 
> ```

thank you!!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2022, 5:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/return-first-last-mid-characters-of-a-keyword-field/306372/4 "2022-07-27T05:25:12Z")

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