Difference between outputs of same query as search and subsearch

[ebarnhill]

Noob here. Can anyone tell me why the following search:

search sourcetype=srt  | table serialNumber

will give me a one-column table of serial numbers as expected, while the same query in subsearch brackets

[search sourcetype=srt  | table serialNumber]

does not return the same table that I expect, but rather returns the full record?

[scelikok · Accepted solution]

Hi @ebarnhill,

Subsearch outputs are formatted as search string. In your case the result is 

serialNumber=serialNumber1 OR serialNumber=serialNumber2 OR ...

You can test the subsearch output by adding format command end of the normal search

search sourcetype=srt  | table serialNumber | format