Splunk Search

regex expression look behind issue

constantinetamp
Observer

I have the following string:

 

 "userEmail":"someString/[email protected]" ABC DEF, 
 "userAddress":"otherString/[email protected]" HIG KLM,
 "userEmail":"someOtherString/[email protected]" ABC DEF, 

 

from which I want to extract the "ab-cde-fgh-2020.domain.com" part but only from the "userEmail" tag.

The regex on regex101 works,

regex.PNG

however on Splunk Search trying to use the expression:

 

| rex "(?<user>(?<="\"userEmail"\"\:\".*)(?<=\/)(.*?)(?=\@))"

 

it gives me the error that "lookbehind assestions is not fixed length", while the following:

 

| rex "(?<user>(?<=\"userEmail"\"\:\").*(?<=\/)(.*?)(?=\@))"

 

Returns:

 

someString/ab-cde-fgh-2020.domain.com
someOtherString/ab-cde-fgh-2020.domain.com

 

as one would expect. However the strings in the position of "someString" or "someOtherString" could be of any length in my data. What could be a workaround on that issue?

Labels (1)
Tags (2)
0 Karma

richgalloway
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Try this rex command that doesn't use lookbehind.

| rex "userEmail[^\/]+(?<user>[^@]+)"

 

---
If this reply helps you, Karma would be appreciated.
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!

Introducing ITSI 5.0: Unified Visibility and Actionable Insights

Introducing ITSI 5.0: Unified Visibility and Actionable Insights Tuesday, July 21, 2026  |  10:00AM PT / ...

Inside Splunk Agent Observability: Understanding Agent Behavior, Tokens & Costs

Inside Splunk Agent Observability:Understanding Agent Behavior, Tokens & Costs Thursday, August 06, ...

From Data to Insight: Announcing the Winners of the Splunk Dashboard Contest

Hi Splunkers, First off, thank you to everyone who participated in our very first From Data to Insight: The ...