These mapping formats can be applied to fields to extract the first character, word or digit of the value.

As an example look at the application of 'First Digit' in detecting whether a set of numbers is say genuine observations or the figment of someone's fertile imagination.

The first digit of a number usually follows a pattern called Benford's Law, which roughly states that 1 should be the first in 30% of the values, 2 in 18% and 3 in 12% etc.

The field analysed here is 'Duration' in the 'Telephone Calls' example. Note how this essentially random data fits the law well!

For a full understanding of this, search the World Wide Web for 'Benford's Law' using a search engine like Google.

The applications of this are simple and far-reaching in that if a set of numbers doesn't follow this rule when expected, something is amiss. Perhaps fraud!

See First Character in the Help for more details.