Text functions

The following list contains the SPL2 functions that you can use with string values.

For information about using string and numeric fields in functions, and nesting functions, see Overview of SPL2 eval functions.

len(<str>)

This function returns the character length of a string.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

Examples

This example returns the character length of the values in the categoryId field for each result.

... | eval n=len(myfield)

Here's another example. Suppose you have a set of results that looks something like this:

_time	names
2024-01-15 16:35:14	buttercup
2024-01-15 16:35:14	rarity
2024-01-15 16:35:14	tenderhoof
2024-01-15 16:35:14	dash
2024-01-15 16:35:14	mistmane

You can determine the length of the values in the names field using the len function:

... | eval length=len(names)

The results show a count of the character length of the values in the names field:

_time	length	names
2024-01-15 16:35:14	9	buttercup
2024-01-15 16:35:14	6	rarity
2024-01-15 16:35:14	10	tenderhoof
2024-01-15 16:35:14	4	dash
2024-01-15 16:35:14	8	mistmane

lower(<str>)

This function returns a string in lowercase.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

Basic example

The following example returns the values in the username field in lowercase.

... | eval username=lower(username)

ltrim(<str>,<trim_chars>)

This function removes characters from the left side of a string.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

The <trim_chars> argument is optional. If not specified, spaces and tabs are removed from the left side of the string.

Basic example

The following example trims the leading spaces and all of the occurrences of the letter Z from the left side of the string. The value returned is abcZZ .

... | eval x=ltrim(" ZZZZabcZZ ", " Z")

replace(<str>,<regex>,<replacement>)

This function substitutes the replacement string for every occurrence of the regular expression in the string.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

The <replacement> argument can also reference groups that are matched in the <regex using perl-compatible regular expressions (PCRE) syntax.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

To replace a backslash ( \ ) character, you must escape the backslash twice. This is because the replace function occurs inside an eval expression. The eval expression performs one level of escaping before passing the regular expression to PCRE. Then PCRE performs its own escaping.

The Edge Processor solution supports Regular Expression 2 (RE2) syntax instead of PCRE syntax. In particular RE2 and PCRE accept different syntax for named capture groups. See Regular expression syntax for Edge Processor pipelines in Use Edge Processors.

Basic example

The following example returns the values in the date field, with the month and day numbers switched. If the input is 1/14/2023 the return value would be 14/1/2023.

... | eval n=replace(date, "^(\d{1,2})/(\d{1,2})/", "\2/\1/")

rtrim(<str>,<trim_chars>)

This function removes the trim characters from the right side of the string.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

The <trim_chars> argument is optional. If not specified, spaces and tabs are removed from the right side of the string.

Basic example

The following example trims the leading spaces and all of the occurrences of the letter Z from the right side of the string. The value returned is ZZZZabc.

... | eval n=rtrim(" ZZZZabcZZ ", " Z")

spath(<value>,<path>)

Use this function to extract information from the structured data formats XML and JSON.

Usage

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

The <value> is an input source field.

The <path> is an spath expression for the location path to the value that you want to extract from.

• If <path> is a literal string, you need to enclose the string in double quotation marks.
• If <path> is a field name, with values that are the location paths, the field name doesn't need quotation marks. Using a field name for <path> might result in a multivalue field.

Basic example

The following example returns the values of locDesc elements from the _raw field..

... | eval locDesc=spath(_raw, "vendorProductSet.product.desc.locDesc")

The following example returns the hashtags from a twitter event.

index=twitter | eval output=spath(_raw, "entities.hashtags")

substr(<str>,<start>,<length>)

This function returns a substring of a string, beginning at the start index. The length of the substring specifies the number of character to return.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

The indexes follow SQLite semantics; they start at 1. Negative indexes can be used to indicate a start from the end of the string.

The <length> is optional, and if not specified returns the rest of the string.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

Basic example

The following example concatenates the first 3 letters in the word splendid with the last 3 letters in the word chunk:

... | eval n=substr("splendid", 1, 3) + substr("chunk", -3)

The result is the word splunk.

trim(<str>,<trim_chars>)

This function removes the trim characters from both sides of the string.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

The <trim_chars> argument is optional. If not specified, spaces and tabs are removed from both sides of the string.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

Basic example

The following example trims the leading spaces and all of the occurrences of the letter Z from the left and right sides of the string. The value returned is abc.

... | eval n=trim(" ZZZZabcZZ ", " Z")

upper(<str>)

This function returns a string in uppercase.

Usage

The <str> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

Basic example

The following example returns the values in the username field in uppercase.

... | eval n=upper(username)

urldecode(<url>)

This function takes a URL string and returns the unescaped or decoded URL string.

Usage

The <url> argument can be the name of a string field or a string literal.

You can use this function with the eval and where commands, in the WHERE clause of the from command, and as part of evaluation expressions with other commands.

Basic example

The following example returns "http://www.splunk.com/download?r=header".

... | eval n=urldecode("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.splunk.com%2Fdownload%3Fr%3Dheader")

See also

Function information

Quick Reference for SPL2 eval functions

Overview of SPL2 eval functions

Naming function arguments in the SPL2 Search Manual

Related functions

tostring