Return first digit of an integer

Question

How in Java do you return the first digit of an integer.?

i.e.

345

Returns an int of 3.

Answer 1

This is Groovy, but it should be easy to convert to Java:

int firstNum(int x) {
    a = Math.abs(x)
    sig = Math.floor(Math.log10(a))
    return a / Math.pow(10, sig)
}

Results:

groovy> println(firstNum(345))
3

groovy> println(firstNum(3452))
3

groovy> println(firstNum(-112))
1

groovy> println(firstNum(9999))
9

groovy> println(firstNum(Integer.MAX_VALUE))
2

groovy> println(firstNum(Integer.MIN_VALUE + 1))
2