diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index d10d1884b..006b33153 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -317,6 +317,7 @@ export(to_numeric)
 export(unnormalize)
 export(unstandardise)
 export(unstandardize)
+export(value_at)
 export(visualisation_recipe)
 export(weighted_mad)
 export(weighted_mean)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 8b6ba88da..9be0338d6 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ NEW FUNCTIONS
 
 * `data_summary()`, to compute summary statistics of (grouped) data frames.
 
+* `value_at()`, to extract values at a specific position in a vector or factor.
+
 CHANGES
 
 * `data_modify()` gets three new arguments, `.at`, `.if` and `.modify`, to modify
diff --git a/R/data_summary.R b/R/data_summary.R
index 654c20879..b8f6e0ed3 100644
--- a/R/data_summary.R
+++ b/R/data_summary.R
@@ -178,6 +178,19 @@ data_summary.grouped_df <- function(x, ..., by = NULL, include_na = TRUE) {
     })
   }
 
+  # check for correct length of output - must be a single value!
+  if (any(lengths(out) != 1)) {
+    insight::format_error(
+      "Each expression must return a single value. Following expressions returned more than one value:",
+      paste0(
+        "`",
+        vapply(dots[lengths(out) != 1], insight::safe_deparse, character(1)),
+        "`",
+        collapse = ", "
+      )
+    )
+  }
+
   out
 }
 
diff --git a/R/value_at.R b/R/value_at.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2b923b6ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/value_at.R
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#' @title Find the value at a specific position in a variable
+#' @name value_at
+#'
+#' @description This function can be used to compute summary statistics for a
+#' data frame or a matrix.
+#'
+#' @param x A vector or factor.
+#' @param position An integer or a vector of integers, indicating the position(s)
+#' of the value(s) to be returned. Negative values are counted from the end of
+#' the vector. If `NA`, an error is thrown.
+#' @param remove_na Logical, if `TRUE`, missing values are removed before
+#' computing the position. If `FALSE`, missing values are included in the
+#' computation.
+#' @param default The value to be returned if the position is out of range.
+#'
+#' @return A vector with the value(s) at the specified position(s).
+#'
+#' @examples
+#' data(mtcars)
+#' # 5th value
+#' value_at(mtcars$mpg, 5)
+#' # last value
+#' value_at(mtcars$mpg, -1)
+#' # out of range, return default
+#' value_at(mtcars$mpg, 150)
+#' # return 2nd and fifth value
+#' value_at(mtcars$mpg, c(2, 5))
+#' @export
+value_at <- function(x, position = 1, default = NULL, remove_na = FALSE) {
+  if (remove_na) {
+    x <- x[!is.na(x)]
+  }
+  n <- length(x)
+  unlist(lapply(position, .values_at, x = x, n = n, default = default), use.names = FALSE)
+}
+
+# helper ----
+
+.values_at <- function(x, position, n, default) {
+  if (is.na(position)) {
+    insight::format_error("`position` can't be `NA`.")
+  }
+  if (position < 0L) {
+    position <- position + n + 1
+  }
+  if (position <= 0 || position > n) {
+    return(default)
+  }
+  x[position]
+}
diff --git a/man/value_at.Rd b/man/value_at.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a2b1058ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/value_at.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/value_at.R
+\name{value_at}
+\alias{value_at}
+\title{Find the value at a specific position in a variable}
+\usage{
+value_at(x, position = 1, default = NULL, remove_na = FALSE)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{x}{A vector or factor.}
+
+\item{position}{An integer or a vector of integers, indicating the position(s)
+of the value(s) to be returned. Negative values are counted from the end of
+the vector. If \code{NA}, an error is thrown.}
+
+\item{default}{The value to be returned if the position is out of range.}
+
+\item{remove_na}{Logical, if \code{TRUE}, missing values are removed before
+computing the position. If \code{FALSE}, missing values are included in the
+computation.}
+}
+\value{
+A vector with the value(s) at the specified position(s).
+}
+\description{
+This function can be used to compute summary statistics for a
+data frame or a matrix.
+}
+\examples{
+data(mtcars)
+# 5th value
+value_at(mtcars$mpg, 5)
+# last value
+value_at(mtcars$mpg, -1)
+# out of range, return default
+value_at(mtcars$mpg, 150)
+# return 2nd and fifth value
+value_at(mtcars$mpg, c(2, 5))
+}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-data_summary.R b/tests/testthat/test-data_summary.R
index 2f7fd3308..88145d959 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-data_summary.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-data_summary.R
@@ -141,6 +141,21 @@ test_that("data_summary, errors", {
     data_summary(mtcars, mw = mesn(mpg), by = "am"),
     regex = "There was an error"
   )
+  # expression returns more than one value
+  expect_error(
+    data_summary(mtcars, n = unique(mpg), j = c(min(am), max(am)), by = c("am", "gear")),
+    regex = "Each expression must return"
+  )
+})
+
+
+test_that("data_summary, values_at", {
+  data(mtcars)
+  out <- data_summary(mtcars, pos1 = value_at(mpg), pos_end = value_at(mpg, -1), by = c("am", "gear"))
+  # same as:
+  # dplyr::summarise(mtcars, pos1 = dplyr::first(mpg), pos_end = dplyr::last(mpg), .by = c("am", "gear"))
+  expect_equal(out$pos1, c(21.4, 24.4, 21, 26), tolerance = 1e-3)
+  expect_equal(out$pos_end, c(19.2, 17.8, 21.4, 15), tolerance = 1e-3)
 })
 
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-value_at.R b/tests/testthat/test-value_at.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a15256004
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-value_at.R
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+test_that("value_at", {
+  data(efc, package = "datawizard")
+  expect_equal(value_at(efc$e42dep, 5), 4, ignore_attr = TRUE)
+  expect_equal(value_at(efc$e42dep, 4), NA, ignore_attr = TRUE)
+  expect_equal(value_at(efc$e42dep, 4, remove_na = TRUE), 4, ignore_attr = TRUE)
+  expect_equal(value_at(efc$c12hour, 5:7), efc$c12hour[5:7], ignore_attr = TRUE)
+  expect_equal(value_at(efc$e42dep, 123456, default = 55), 55, ignore_attr = TRUE)
+  expect_null(value_at(efc$e42dep, 123456))
+})