Splunk Search

Creating a multivalue field from a result?

dshpritz
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Hey everyone,

So this feels like something I should be able to do with the standard search language, but I am failing at it.

I have a result, coming from a custom command, that contains field like this:

entries.0.category\_name, entries.1.category\_name,...,entries.n.category\_name

I would like to take all of these and either create a multi-value field with all of the values in them, or create just one string joining all of the values of entries.*.category_name together, with a comma.

I want something like:

| eval mvjoin(entries.*.category_name, ",")

But Splunk does not like that.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Dave

1 Solution

_d_
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

Try this:

...| eval categories = "" | foreach entries.*.category_name [eval categories='<<FIELD>>' + "," + categories]| makemv delim="," categories

View solution in original post

_d_
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

Try this:

...| eval categories = "" | foreach entries.*.category_name [eval categories='<<FIELD>>' + "," + categories]| makemv delim="," categories

aelliott
Motivator

So basically he has fields that are named "entries.InsertNumberHere.category_name" and would like to combine them into one multi-value field. Variably Named columns.

dshpritz
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Hey somesoni2,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I want to join the values across an unknown number of fields, each named entries.n.category. That is, my example above is the field names, not the value in the fields.

Thanks,

Dave

0 Karma

somesoni2
Revered Legend

Try split command.

| | eval fieldName=split(fieldName, ",")

This will split value in the fieldName by comma and create a multivalued field out of it.

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Cisco Data Fabric from Architecture to Investigation, Better SOC Visibility, and More ...

Splunk Lantern is Splunk’s customer success center that provides practical guidance from Splunk experts on key ...

The Trust Gap: Why a Data Foundation is Fundamental to an Agentic Enterprise

The Trust Gap: Why a data foundation is fundamental to an  Agentic Enterprise.   Agentic AI is transforming ...

Data Management Digest – September 2026

    Welcome to the September 2026 edition of Data Management Digest! September brought a fresh wave of ...