# Is it possible to append a text list to the first 1000 characters?

**URL:** <https://community.glideapps.com/t/is-it-possible-to-append-a-text-list-to-the-first-1000-characters/21361>\
**Category:** Ask for Help\
**Created:** [January 18, 2021, 5:11pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/is-it-possible-to-append-a-text-list-to-the-first-1000-characters/21361 "2021-01-18T17:11:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Simon\_Hill](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/simon_hill/32/94730_2.png) [@Simon\_Hill](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Simon_Hill)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 5:11pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/is-it-possible-to-append-a-text-list-to-the-first-1000-characters/21361/1 "2021-01-18T17:11:39Z")

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I have a template column that generates a URL plus a joined list of paragraph entries. Sometimes the list gets long. I would like to limit the list, eg to 1000 characters. The URL generates a word cloud but doesn’t work when the string is too long.

I know this is straightforward in Google Sheets, but does anyone have a hack for doing it in a Glide App?

Thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/is-it-possible-to-append-a-text-list-to-the-first-1000-characters/21361/2 "2021-01-19T01:25:14Z")

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I don’t think this is doable for now. Until we have a LEFT function then there’s no way we can identify the first 1000 characters of a string, or the 1000th character of a string to split it.

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 1:33am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/is-it-possible-to-append-a-text-list-to-the-first-1000-characters/21361/3 "2021-01-19T01:33:34Z")

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I’m surprised that you’re having this problem. I use the Word Cloud API in one of my apps, and I limit mine to 1000 words (not characters), so I’m probably sending strings of 5000-8000 characters. And I’ve never had a problem with it.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Simon\_Hill](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/simon_hill/32/94730_2.png) [@Simon\_Hill](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Simon_Hill)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:29am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/is-it-possible-to-append-a-text-list-to-the-first-1000-characters/21361/4 "2021-01-19T08:29:12Z")

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Hi Darren,

Thanks for responding. I’m using this template to generate the URL:

[https://quickchart.io/wordcloud?text=WORDS](https://quickchart.io/wordcloud?text=WORDS)

Do you use something different? I read on their website about sending something called curls for longer lists, but I have no experience of those.

from: [Word Cloud API](https://quickchart.io/documentation/word-cloud-api/)

" Churchill’s speech

Now, let’s say we want to do a tag cloud of Churchill’s famous “we shall fight on the beaches” Dunkirk speech. This is a [long speech](https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches/) that is too big to fit in a URL, so we will instead use a POST request to send the data.

Because I’m doing this on the command line, I’ll first create a file `churchill.json` with the following JSON contents:

```auto
{ "format": "png", "width": 1000, "height": 1000, "fontFamily": "sans-serif", "fontScale": 15, "scale": "linear", "text": "<churchill's full speech...>"}

```

Then POST it to the API endpoint using `curl` :

```auto
curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' https://quickchart.io/wordcloud -d @churchill.json -o churchill.png"

Regards,
Simon.
```