% arara: pdflatex
\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{datatool-base}

\begin{document}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\datatool_get_first_grapheme:nN { élan } \l_tmpa_tl
\tl_show:N \l_tmpa_tl
\l_tmpa_tl
\ExplSyntaxOff
\end{document}
