packer/website/content/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/string/indent.mdx

---
page_title: indent function reference
description: |-
  The `indent` function adds spaces to the beginnings of all but the
  first line of a given multi-line string.
---

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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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# `indent` Function

`indent` adds a given number of spaces to the beginnings of all but the first
line in a given multi-line string.

```hcl
indent(num_spaces, string)
```

## Examples

This function is useful for inserting a multi-line string into an
already-indented context in another string:

```shell-session
> "  items: %{indent(2, "[\n  foo,\n  bar,\n]\n")}"
  items: [
    foo,
    bar,
  ]
```

The first line of the string is not indented so that, as above, it can be
placed after an introduction sequence that has already begun the line.