Firstitem

Firstitem is a term that commonly refers to the first element within an ordered sequence or collection. In programming and data contexts, it is often used as a shorthand for retrieving or referencing that element.

In many languages with zero-based indexing, the first item occupies position zero (index 0); in one-based languages, it is position one (index 1). Some libraries provide a function or method named firstItem or first_item to return the first element, sometimes with safeguards for empty collections returning null, nil, or an option type.

Beyond element retrieval, firstitem can denote a property on a data model or user interface component that stores the default or currently selected item. In functional programming traditions, equivalent ideas are expressed by terms such as head or car, depending on language.

Because the exact behavior of a function or property named firstitem varies by language and library, developers should consult the relevant documentation for edge cases, such as empty sequences, mixed types, or lazy collections.

See also: first, head, front, begin, lead, item, tail.