packer/website/content/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/collection/slice.mdx

---
page_title: slice function reference
description: The `slice` function extracts consecutive elements from a list. Learn how to use the `slice` function in Packer templates.
---

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> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation previously located in `/website` has moved to the [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs) repository, where all product documentation is now centralized. Please make contributions directly to `web-unified-docs`, since changes to `/website` in this repository will not appear on developer.hashicorp.com.
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# `slice` Function

`slice` extracts some consecutive elements from within a list.

```hcl
slice(list, startindex, endindex)
```

`startindex` is inclusive, while `endindex` is exclusive. This function returns
an error if either index is outside the bounds of valid indices for the given
list.

## Examples

```shell-session
> slice(["a", "b", "c", "d"], 1, 3)
[
  "b",
  "c",
]
```

## Related Functions

- [`substr`](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/string/substr) performs a similar function for characters in a
  string, although it uses a length instead of an end index.