diff --git a/tpl/template.go b/tpl/template.go
index 7e9f41f1f..1f899faf7 100644
--- a/tpl/template.go
+++ b/tpl/template.go
@@ -188,12 +188,25 @@ func compareGetFloat(a interface{}, b interface{}) (float64, float64) {
 	return left, right
 }
 
-func Substr(a interface{}, pos, length int) (string, error) {
+// Slicing in Slice is done by specifying a half-open range with
+// two indices, lower and upper. 1 and 4 creates a slice including elements 1 through 3.
+// The start and/or end indices can be omitted by setting one or both of them to -1; they default to zero and the slice's length respectively
+func Slice(a interface{}, start, end int) (string, error) {
 	aStr, err := cast.ToStringE(a)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
-	return aStr[pos:length], nil
+
+	if start != -1 && end != -1 {
+		return aStr[start:end], nil
+	} else if start == -1 && end == -1 {
+		return aStr[:], nil
+	} else if start == -1 {
+		return aStr[:end], nil
+	} else {
+		return aStr[start:], nil
+	}
+
 }
 
 func Split(a interface{}, delimiter string) ([]string, error) {
@@ -1324,7 +1337,7 @@ func init() {
 		"lt":          Lt,
 		"le":          Le,
 		"in":          In,
-		"substr":      Substr,
+		"slice":       Slice,
 		"split":       Split,
 		"intersect":   Intersect,
 		"isSet":       IsSet,
diff --git a/tpl/template_test.go b/tpl/template_test.go
index dca4711d1..55f739576 100644
--- a/tpl/template_test.go
+++ b/tpl/template_test.go
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ func TestIn(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestSubstr(t *testing.T) {
+func TestSlice(t *testing.T) {
 	for i, this := range []struct {
 		v1     interface{}
 		v2     int
@@ -286,14 +286,17 @@ func TestSubstr(t *testing.T) {
 		{"abc", 1, 2, "b"},
 		{"abc", 1, 3, "bc"},
 		{"abc", 0, 1, "a"},
+		{"abcdef", -1, -1, "abcdef"},
+		{"abcdef", -1, 2, "ab"},
+		{"abcdef", 2, -1, "cdef"},
 		{123, 1, 3, "23"},
 		{tstNoStringer{}, 0, 1, false},
 	} {
-		result, err := Substr(this.v1, this.v2, this.v3)
+		result, err := Slice(this.v1, this.v2, this.v3)
 
 		if b, ok := this.expect.(bool); ok && !b {
 			if err == nil {
-				t.Errorf("[%d] Substr didn't return an expected error", i)
+				t.Errorf("[%d] Slice didn't return an expected error", i)
 			}
 		} else {
 			if err != nil {