topic Performing a lookup using a string literal instead of a field name in Splunk Search

Performing a lookup using a string literal instead of a field name

AlexBryant — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 17:06:36 GMT

I'm performing a lookup against a csv and need to use two columns (description and function) to return the correct value. However, I have a case where I need to explicitly specify the function, while using a description value from an event. Here's a lookup that works for me:

| lookup products.csv ProductDescription as description, ProductFunction as function OUTPUTNEW Name as ProductName

What I need to do is this:

| lookup products.csv ProductDescription as description, ProductFunction as "Kitchen Appliance" OUTPUTNEW Name as ProductName

When the event happens to contain "Kitchen Appliance" as the function, the lookup works, but if I explicitly specify "Kitchen Appliance" as the lookup value, nothing is returned. Is this usage supported?

Re: Performing a lookup using a string literal instead of a field name

richgalloway — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 20:11:36 GMT

I've never seen that usage so you could be trying something that is not supported. Have you tried assigning the literal to a field before the lookup?

... | eval KA="Kitchen Appliance" | lookup products.csv ProductDescription as description, ProductFunction as KA OUTPUTNEW Name as ProductName

Re: Performing a lookup using a string literal instead of a field name

AlexBryant — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 21:52:50 GMT

Yep, assigning the literal value with an eval beforehand definitely works, and that's how I have it currently running, but I was hoping I could avoid that step. The docs only refer to a field value being used in the command and not a string, so I agree, it may be unsupported.