In bash, how can I print the first n elements of a list?

Question

In bash, how can I print the first n elements of a list?

For example, the first 10 files in this list:

FILES=$(ls)

Answer 1

to do it interactively:

set $FILES && eval eval echo \\\${1..10}

to run it as a script, create foo.sh with contents

N=$1; shift; eval eval echo \\\${1..$N}

and run it as

bash foo.sh 10 $FILES