Let contain the support of . Choose a cutoff function that equals one near . It makes
well-defined, and differentiating the parameter under the pairing gives
Thus the Fourier transform of a compactly supported distribution is a smooth function. Since a compactly supported distribution has finite order, some and satisfy
Applying this estimate to the exponential yields .
Now take , multiply by a cutoff function supported in and equal to one near , and regard the result as an element of . Choose so large that
is Lebesgue integrable. The inverse Fourier transform is a bounded continuous function, and the Fourier transform of a derivative gives
as a distributional identity. This is the Bessel potential proof of the structure theorem for compactly supported distributions.
The function itself need not have compact support. Choose another cutoff equal to one near . Then . Repeatedly using
expresses as a finite sum , where every coefficient is continuous and compactly supported in .