topic Re: using eval to calculate time between events not working in Splunk Search

using eval to calculate time between events not working

Mike6960 — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 10:15:21 GMT

I am trying to use eval to calculate the time between events. Those events have a unique ID.
This is the sarch that I have now:

 <my search> 
| eval Test =if(message.information=="some_data",_time,null()) 
| eval Test2=if(message.information="some_data_2" ,_time,null()) 
| eval Test3 = Test - Test2 
| table _time Test Test2 Test3

I am doing something wrong I guess because I only see values in the _time column, the rest is empty.

Re: using eval to calculate time between events not working

MuS — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 10:25:19 GMT

Hi Mike6960,

you need to put your message.information fields in single quotes ' like this:

<my search> 
 | eval Test =if('message.information'=="some_data",_time,null()) 
 | eval Test2=if('message.information'="some_data_2" ,_time,null()) 
 | eval Test3 = Test - Test2 
 | table _time Test Test2 Test3

because they contain a . and this is a special case when using eval()

Take a look at this run everywhere SPL:

| makeresults 
| eval message.information="1", foo="2" 
| eval Test =if('message.information'=="1",now(),null()) 
| eval Test2=if('message.information'=="2" ,null(),relative_time(now(), "-1sec")) 
| eval Test3 = Test - Test2 
| table _time Test Test2 Test3

Hope this helps ...

cheers, MuS

Re: using eval to calculate time between events not working

Mike6960 — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:01:22 GMT

@MuS Thanks, this works. I now only have to convert to normal time, because I get a number as result. Is there a way to show one line per ID? What I mean is that in the example I gave there are always tow events per ID. Ik want one line per ID.

Re: using eval to calculate time between events not working

Mike6960 — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:04:20 GMT

@MuS , also the field Test3 remains empty...

Re: using eval to calculate time between events not working

MuS — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:06:41 GMT

Sorry, but there is no id in this question and I also don't know what your events look like or your expected output looks like. This is really up to you to figure it out or accept this answer and post a new one with more details.

cheers, MuS

Re: using eval to calculate time between events not working

Mike6960 — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:10:11 GMT

Ok, thank you for your help with my initial question

Re: using eval to calculate time between events not working

MuS — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:18:46 GMT

You're welcome 🙂

cheers, MuS