Time functions

The following list contains the SPL2 functions that you can use to change the order of the events based on time.

For an overview about the stats and charting functions, see Overview of SPL2 stats functions.

earliest(<value>)

Returns the chronologically earliest seen occurrence of a value in a field.

Usage

You can use this function with the stats and timechart commands.

This function processes field values as strings.

Basic example

You run the following search to locate invalid user login attempts against a specific sshd (Secure Shell Daemon). You use the fields command to see the values in the _time, source, and _raw fields.

| FROM main WHERE `sourcetype=secure "invalid user" "sshd[5258]"` | fields _time, source, _raw

The results look something like this:

_time	source	_raw
29 Apr 2020 00:15:05	.../mailsv/secure.log	Tue Apr 28 2020 00:15:05 mailsv1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user tomcat from 67.170.226.218 port 1490 ssh2
01 May 2020 00:15:04	.../www2/secure.log	Fri May 01 2020 00:15:04 www2 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user brian from 130.253.37.97 port 4284 ssh2
30 Apr 2020 00:15:02	.../www3/secure.log	Thu Apr 30 2020 00:15:02 www3 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user operator from 222.169.224.226 port 1711 ssh2
28 Apr 2020 00:15:01	.../www1/secure.log	Tue Apr 28 2020 00:15:01 www1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user rightscale from 87.194.216.51 port 3361 ssh2
01 May 2020 00:15:05	.../mailsv/secure.log	Fri May 01 2020 00:15:05 mailsv1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user testuser from 194.8.74.23 port 3626 ssh2
27 Apr 2020 00:15:01	.../www1/secure.log	Mon Apr 27 2020 00:15:01 www1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user redmine from 91.208.184.24 port 3587 ssh2

You extend the search using the earliest function.

| FROM main WHERE `sourcetype=secure "invalid user" "sshd[5258]"` | fields _time, source, _raw | stats earliest(_raw)

The search returns the event with the _time value 2020-04-27 00:15:01, which is the event with the oldest timestamp.

_time	source	_raw
2020-04-27 00:15:01	.../www1/secure.log	Mon Apr 27 2020 00:15:01 www1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user redmine from 91.208.184.24 port 3587 ssh2

earliest_time(<value>)

Returns the UNIX time of the chronologically earliest-seen occurrence of a given field value.

Usage

You can use this function with the stats and timechart commands.

This function processes field values as strings.

If you have metrics data, you can use the earliest_time function in conjunction with earliest, latest, and latest_time functions to calculate the rate of increase for a counter. Alternatively you can use the rate function counter to do the same thing.

Basic example

The following search runs against metric data. It returns the earliest UNIX time values, for every minute, for each metric_name that begins with deploy.

| FROM _metrics WHERE earliest_time(_value) metric_name=deploy* span(metric_name, 1m)

The results look something like this:

_time	metric_name	earliest_time(_value)
2018-11-11 18:14:00	deploy-connections.nCurrent	1541988860.000000
2018-11-11 18:14:00	deploy-connections.nStarted	1541988860.000000
2018-11-11 18:14:00	deploy-server.volumeCompletedKB	1541988860.000000
2018-11-11 18:15:00	deploy-connections.nCurrent	1541988922.000000
2018-11-11 18:15:00	deploy-connections.nStarted	1541988922.000000
2018-11-11 18:15:00	deploy-server.volumeCompletedKB	1541988922.000000

latest(<value>)

Returns the chronologically latest seen occurrence of a value in a field.

Usage

You can use this function with the stats and timechart commands.

This function processes field values as strings.

Basic example

You run the following search to locate invalid user login attempts against a specific sshd (Secure Shell Daemon). You use the fields command to see the values in the _time, source, and _raw fields.

| FROM main WHERE `sourcetype=secure "invalid user" "sshd[5258]"` | fields _time, source, _raw

The results look something like this:

_time	source	_raw
28 Apr 2020 00:15:05	.../mailsv/secure.log	Tue Apr 28 2020 00:15:05 mailsv1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user tomcat from 67.170.226.218 port 1490 ssh2
01 May 2020 00:15:04	.../www2/secure.log	Fri May 01 2020 00:15:04 www2 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user brian from 130.253.37.97 port 4284 ssh2
30 Apr 2020 00:15:02	.../www3/secure.log	Thu Apr 30 2020 00:15:02 www3 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user operator from 222.169.224.226 port 1711 ssh2
28 Apr 2020 00:15:01	.../www1/secure.log	Tue Apr 28 2020 00:15:01 www1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user rightscale from 87.194.216.51 port 3361 ssh2
01 May 2020 00:15:05	.../mailsv/secure.log	Fri May 01 2020 00:15:05 mailsv1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user testuser from 194.8.74.23 port 3626 ssh2
27 Apr 2020 00:15:01	.../www1/secure.log	Mon Apr 27 2020 00:15:01 www1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user redmine from 91.208.184.24 port 3587 ssh2

You extend the search using the latest function.

| FROM main WHERE `sourcetype=secure "invalid user" "sshd[5258]"` | fields _time, source, _raw | stats latest(_raw)

The search returns the event with the _time value 2020-05-01 00:15:05, which is the event with the most recent timestamp.

_time	source	_raw
01 May 2020 00:15:05	.../mailsv/secure.log	Fri May 01 2020 00:15:05 mailsv1 sshd[5258]: Failed password for invalid user testuser from 194.8.74.23 port 3626 ssh2

latest_time(<value>)

Returns the UNIX time of the chronologically latest-seen occurrence of a given field value.

Usage

You can use this function with the stats and timechart commands.

This function processes field values as strings.

If you have metrics data, you can use the latest_time funciton in conjunction with earliest, latest, and earliest_time functions to calculate the rate of increase for a counter. Alternatively, you can use the rate function counter to do the same thing.

Basic example

The following search runs against metric data. It is designed to return the earliest UNIX time values in the past 60 minutes for metrics with names that begin with queue..

select latest(_value), metric_name, _time from metrics where metric_name like "queue.*" group by metric_name, span(_time, 1m)

The results look something like this:

_time	metric_name	earliest_time(_value)
2018-11-13 14:43:00	queue.current_size	1542149039.000000
2018-11-13 14:43:00	queue.current_size_kb	1542149039.000000
2018-11-13 14:43:00	queue.largest_size	1542149039.000000
2018-11-13 14:43:00	queue.max_size_kb	1542149039.000000
2018-11-13 14:43:00	queue.smallest_size	1542149039.000000
2018-11-13 14:44:00	queue.current_size	1542149070.000000
2018-11-13 14:44:00	queue.current_size_kb	1542149070.000000
2018-11-13 14:44:00	queue.largest_size	1542149070.000000
2018-11-13 14:44:00	queue.max_size_kb	1542149070.000000
2018-11-13 14:44:00	queue.smallest_size	1542149070.000000

per_day(<value>)

Returns the values in a field or eval expression for each day.

Usage

You can use this function with the timechart command.

Basic examples

The following example returns the values for the total field for each day.

... | timechart per_day(total)

The following example returns the results of the eval expression eval(method="GET")) and labels the field for the evaluated results "Views".

... | timechart per_day(eval(method="GET")) AS Views

Extended example

This search uses the per_day function and eval expressions to determine how many times the web pages were viewed and how many times items were purchased. This example should work with any format of Apache Web access log file.

| FROM main WHERE sourcetype=access_* | timechart per_day(eval(method="GET")) AS Views_day, per_day(eval(action="purchase")) AS Purchases

To determine the number of Views and Purchases for each hour, minute, or second you can add the other time functions to the search. For example:

| FROM main WHERE sourcetype=access_* | timechart per_day(eval(method="GET")) AS Views_day, per_hour(eval(method="GET")) AS Views_hour, per_minute(eval(method="GET")) AS Views_minute, per_day(eval(action="purchase")) AS Purchases

per_hour(<value>)

Returns the values in a field or eval expression for each hour.

Usage

You can use this function with the timechart command.

Basic examples

The following example returns the values for the field total for each hour.

... | timechart per_hour(total)

The following example returns the results of the eval expression eval(method="POST")) and labels the field for the evaluated results Views.

... | timechart per_hour(eval(method="POST")) AS Views

per_minute(<value>)

Returns the values in a field or eval expression for each minute.

Usage

You can use this function with the timechart command.

Basic examples

The following example returns the values for the field total for each minute.

... | timechart per_minute(total)

The following example returns the results of the eval expression eval(method="GET")) and labels the fields for the evaluated results "Views".

... | timechart per_minute(eval(method="GET")) AS Views

per_second(<value>)

Returns the values in a field or eval expression for each second.

Usage

You can use this function with the timechart command.

Basic examples

The following example returns the values for the field kb for each second.

... | timechart per_second(kb)

rate(<value>)

Returns the per-second rate change of the value in a field. The rate function represents the following formula:

(latest(<value>) - earliest(<value>) / latest_time(<value>) - earliest_time(<value>))

The rate function also handles the largest value reset if there is at least one reset.

Usage

You can use this function with the statscommand.

• Provides the per-second rate change for accumulating counter metrics. Accumulating counters report the total counter value since the last counter reset.
• Requires the earliest and latest values of the field to be numerical, and the earliest_time and latest_time values to be different.
• Requires at least two metrics data points in the search time range.
• Should be used to provide rate information about single, rather than multiple, counters.

Basic example

The following search runs against metric data. It provides the hourly hit rate for a metric that provides measurements of incoming web traffic. It uses the processor filter to ensure that it is not reporting on multiple metric series (name and processor combinations).

| FROM _metrics WHERE name=indexerpipe processor=index_thruput | stats rate(traffic.incoming) AS rate_hits span=1h

span(<time>,<span-length>)

This function groups search results by the timespan you specify. This function is used only as part of a group by clause.

Usage

You can use this function in the BY clause of the stats command and in the GROUPBY clause of the from command.

For the <time> parameter, you can specify any field that contains values in UNIX time.

• With the stats function, the <time> parameter is specified as part of the BY clause, before the span function.
• With the GROUPBY clause in the from command, the <time> parameter is specified with the <span-length> in the span function.

The <span-length> consists of two parts, an integer and a time scale. For example, to specify 30 seconds you can use 30s. To specify 2 hours you can use 2h. If not specified, a <span-length> is chosen based on the time range of the search.

The following table lists the valid time scale units:

Time scale	Syntax
seconds	s | sec | secs | second | seconds
minutes	m | min | mins | minute | minutes
hours	h | hr | hrs | hour | hours
days	d | day | days
months	mon | month | months
subseconds: microseconds (us) milliseconds (ms) centiseconds (cs) deciseconds (ds)	us | ms | cs | ds

Examples

1. Specify the span in the stats command

The following example counts the values in the action field and organizes the results into 5 minute time spans.

...| stats count(action) AS count BY _time span=5min

2. Specify the span in the GROUP BY clause of the from command

The following example returns the count of the values in the error field in 30 second intervals. In this example the <time> parameter is specified, the _time field is used.

FROM <dataset> GROUP BY span(_time, 30sec) SELECT count(error), _time

3. Specify a time field other than _time

The following example returns the count of the values in the bytes field in 1 hour intervals based on the values in the starttime field:

FROM <dataset> GROUP BY span(starttime, 1hr) SELECT sum(bytes), starttime

sparkline(<aggregation>, <span-length>)

This function generates time-based trendline charts in the search results.

Usage

You can use this function with the stats or streamstats commands.

To use the sparkline function, you must specify an aggregate function, like count or sum. Include the name of a field with numeric values or a numeric literal with the aggregate function. With the count aggregate function, you can omit the field name or literal to count the events.

The supported aggregate functions are:

• avg
• count
• dc
• max
• mean
• min
• range
• stdev
• stdevp
• sum
• sumsq
• var
• varp

The <span-length> parameter determines the set of events that fall into each particular time range when calculating the aggregate values in the chart. The <span-length> consists of two parts, an integer and a time scale. For example, to specify 30 seconds you can use 30s. If not specified, a <span-length> is chosen based on the time range of the search.

Examples

1. Sparkline charts that summarize data

The following search generates sparkline charts that display a sum of the bytes field values in 1 day increments. The sparkline charts are organized by the values in the host field.

...| stats sparkline(sum(bytes), 1d) by host

2. Sparkline charts that count events

The following search generates sparkline charts that display a count of the events for each status field value in 30 minute increments. The sparkline charts are organized by the values in the status field, which holds HTTP status values like 200 and 404.

... | stats sparkline(count(), 30m) by status

See also

Function information

Overview of SPL2 stats and chart functions

Quick Reference for SPL2 Stats and Charting Functions

Naming function arguments in the SPL2 Search Manual