For Liquid Layout, is "Slice" supported?

Question

I tried {%if {{item.name | slice:1,1}} and also tested {%if {{"hello" | slice:1,1}}, but neither worked.
I'm trying to filter alphabetically, and wanted to something like this:
{% for item in items %}  {%if {{item.name | slice:1,1}} == "a" %}
<tr>
<td class="name"><a href="{{item.url}}">{{item.name}}</a></td>
<td class="status">Application {{item.['application status']}}</td>
</tr>
{%endif%}{%endfor%} 

Answer 1

Not exactly the functionality I was looking for.  I want to know what the first character is. 
slice - slice a string. Takes an offset and length, e.g. {{ "hello" | slice: -3, 3 }} #=> llo
from Liquid for Designers · Shopify/liquid Wiki · GitHub