Splunk Search

How to Capture optional fields?

JohnnyTsunami
New Member

rex command im using:  (?:\w+\s\:\s)(?<command>[^\;]+)?\;\s(?<Datainput>[^\s]+)\s\;\s(?<Extra>[^\s]+)

Data

1) command : TTY-unknown ; data ; ... ;
2) command : Random blurb ; TTY-unknown ; data ; ... ;
3) command : Some other blurb ; TTY-unknown ; data ; ... ;
4) command : TTY-unknown ; data ; ... ;
5) command : TTY-unknown ; data ; ... ;

When I rex this data, what i get is:

  command TTY datainput
1 unknown data ...
2 Random blurb unknown data
3 Some other blurb unknown data
4 unknown data ...
5 unknown data ...

What I want to get is data that doesn't skip the data in 2 and 3, so it would look like this.  How do I accomplish this?

  command TTY datainput
1   unknown data
2 Random blurb unknown data
3 Some other blurb unknown data
4   unknown data
5   unknown data
Labels (1)
Tags (1)
0 Karma

richgalloway
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

IME, when fields are optional it is much simpler to use multiple rex commands - one for each optional field, plus one or more others for the static fields.

---
If this reply helps you, Karma would be appreciated.
0 Karma
Career Survey
First 500 qualified respondents will receive a $20 gift card! Tell us about your professional Splunk journey.
Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Splunk AI Assistant for SPL vs. ChatGPT: Which One is Better?

In the age of AI, every tool promises to make our lives easier. From summarizing content to writing code, ...

Data Persistence in the OpenTelemetry Collector

This blog post is part of an ongoing series on OpenTelemetry. What happens if the OpenTelemetry collector ...

Thanks for the Memories! Splunk University, .conf25, and our Community

Thank you to everyone in the Splunk Community who joined us for .conf25, which kicked off with our iconic ...