Splunk Search

Two sets subtraction

pitmod
Explorer

I have a two saved searches A and B. Each gives an output like below:

A:                             

host

host1

host2

host 3

B:

host

host 2

host 3

host 4

I'd like to execute search that uses results of both saved searches to perform set subtraction: A - B. So in this example I should get host1 as an result. The number of hosts for A and B can be greater than 10000 so I'd like to avoid using subsearch command as my output could be truncated.

0 Karma
1 Solution

ITWhisperer
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

There are probably a number of ways to do this - try:

searchA
| eval search="A"
| append [searchB
          | eval search="B"]
| stats values(search) as search by host
| where mvcount(search)=1 AND search="A"

View solution in original post

ITWhisperer
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

There are probably a number of ways to do this - try:

searchA
| eval search="A"
| append [searchB
          | eval search="B"]
| stats values(search) as search by host
| where mvcount(search)=1 AND search="A"
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 ...