Supported query commands Matches and regular expressions in the filter command Using aliases in queries Using comments in queries Supported operations and functions

CloudWatch Logs Insights query syntax

With CloudWatch Logs Insights, you use a query language to query your log groups. The query syntax supports different functions and operations that include but aren't limited to general functions, arithmetic and comparison operations, and regular expressions. Create queries that contain multiple commands. Separate commands with the pipe character (|). Create queries that contain comments. Set off comments with the hash character (#).

Note

CloudWatch Logs Insights automatically discovers fields for different log types and generates fields that start with the @ character. For more information about these fields, see Supported logs and discovered fields in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.

CloudWatch Logs Insights query commands

This section contains a list of the supported query commands for CloudWatch Logs Insights.

Note

The example queries in this section won't work for all log types. For examples of general queries and queries for other log types, see Sample queries.

display

Use the display command to show a specific field or fields in query results.

Example: Display one field

The example query extracts data from the @message field and creates the ephemeral fields loggingType and loggingMessage. The query returns log events where the values for loggingType are ERROR and shows only the values for loggingMessage in the query results.


fields @message
    | parse @message "[*] *" as loggingType, loggingMessage
    | filter loggingType = "ERROR"
    | display loggingMessage

Example: Display more than one field

You can specify more than one field in the display command. The example query shows the values for loggingType and loggingMessage in the query results.


fields @message
    | parse @message "[*] *" as loggingType, loggingMessage
    | filter loggingType = "ERROR"
    | display loggingType, loggingMessage

Tip

As a best practice, use the display command only once in a query. If you use the display command more than once in a query, the query results show the field specified in the last occurrence of display command being used.

fields

Use the fields command to show specific fields in query results.

Example: Display specific fields

The following query returns 20 log events and displays them in descending order. The values for @timestamp and @message are shown in the query results.


fields @timestamp, @message
| sort @timestamp desc
| limit 20

Tip

Use this command when you don't want to use the display command. The fields command supports different functions and operations for modifying field values and creating new fields that can be used in queries.

filter

Use the filter command to get log events that match one or more conditions.

Example: Filter log events using one condition

The following query returns log events where the value for range is greater than 3000. The query limits the results to 20 log events and sorts the logs events by @timestamp and in descending order.


fields @timestamp, @message
| filter (range>3000)
| sort @timestamp desc
| limit 20

Example: Filter log events using more than one condition

You can use the keywords and and or to combine more than one condition.

The following query returns log events where the value for range is greater than 3000 and value for accountId is equal to 798312420998. Like the previous query, the query limits the results to 20 log events and sorts the logs events by @timestamp and in descending order.


fields @timestamp, @message
| filter (range>3000 and accountId=9876543210)
| sort @timestamp desc
| limit 20

stats

Use the stats command to calculate aggregate statistics with log field values.

sort

Use the sort command to display log events in ascending (asc) or descending (desc) order.

limit

Use the limit command to specify the number of log events that you want your query to return.

parse

Use the parse command to extract data from a log field and create an ephemeral field that you can process in your query.

Guidelines for working with query commands

You must surround log fields named in queries that include characters other than the @ symbol, period (.), and non-alphanumeric characters in backtick keys (`). For example, the log field foo-bar must be enclosed in backticks (`foo-bar`) because it contains a non-alphanumeric character, the hyphen (-).

Use the display command to show the field or fields that you want to see in your query results. The display command only shows the fields you specify. If your query contains multiple display commands, the query results show only the field or fields that you specified in the final display command.

You can use fields command with the keyword as to create ephemeral fields that use fields and functions in your log events. For example, fields ispresent as isRes creates an ephemeral field named isRes, and the ephemeral field can be used in the rest of your query.

The value of isRes equals 0 or 1, depending on whether resolverArn is a discovered field . If your query contains multiple fields commands and doesn't include a display command, you'll display all of the fields that are specified in the fields commands.

Matches and regular expressions in the filter command

The filter command supports the use of regular expressions. You can use the following comparison operators (=, !=, <, <=, >, >=) and Boolean operators (and, or, and not).

Note

We assume that you're familiar with regular expressions. CloudWatch Logs Insights supports Hyperscan, a mutiple regular expression matching library. For more information about Hyperscan, see the Hyperscan website.

You can use the keyword in to test for set membership and check for elements in an array. To check for elements in an array, put the array after in. You can use the Boolean operator not with in. You can create queries that use in to return log events where fields are string matches. The fields must be complete strings. For example, the following code snippet shows a query that uses in to return log events where the field logGroup is the complete string example_group.


fields @timestamp, @message
| filter logGroup in ["example_group"]

You can use the keyword phrases like and not like to match substrings. You can use the regular expression operator =~ to match substrings. To match a substring with like and not like, enclose the substring that you want to match in single or double quotation marks. You can use regular expression patterns with like and not like. To match a substring with the regular expression operator, enclose the substring that you want to match in forward slashes. The following examples contain code snippets that show how you can match substrings using the filter command.

Examples: Match substrings

The following examples return log events where f1 contains the word Exception. All three examples are case sensitive.

The first example matches a substring with like.


fields f1, f2, f3 
| filter f1 like "Exception"

The second example matches a substring with like and a regular expression pattern.


fields f1, f2, f3 
| filter f1 like /Exception/

The last example matches a substring with a regular expression.


fields f1, f2, f3 
| filter f1 =~ /Exception/

Example: Match substrings with wild cards

You can use the asterisk symbol (*) as a wild card in regular expressions to match substrings. The following example returns log events where f1 contains words that begin with the letter E. The example is case sensitive.


fields f1, f2, f3
| filter f3 like /E*/

Note

You can place a period before the asterisk symbol (.*) to create a greedy quantifier that returns as many matches as possible.

Example: Exclude substrings from matches

The following example shows a query that returns log events where f1 doesn't contain the word Exception. The example is case senstive.


fields f1, f2, f3 
| filter f1 not like "Exception"

Example: Match substrings with case insensitve patterns

You can match substrings that are case insensitve with like and regular expressions. Place the following parameter (?i) before the substring you want to match. The following example shows a query that returns log events where f1 contains the word Exception or exception.


fields f1, f2, f3 
| filter f1 like /(?i)Exception/

Using aliases in queries

Create queries that contain aliases. Use aliases to rename log fields or when extracting values into ephemeral fields. Use the keyword as to give a log field or result an alias. You can use more than one alias in a query. You can use aliases in the following commands:

fields
parse
sort
stats

The following examples show how to create queries that contain aliases.

Example

The query contains an alias in the fields command.


fields @timestamp, @message, accountId as ID
| sort @timestamp desc
| limit 20

The query returns the values for the fields @timestamp, @message, and accountId. The results are sorted in descending order and limited to 20. The values for accountId are listed under the alias ID.

Example

The query contains aliases in the sort and stats commands.


stats count(*) by duration as time 
| sort time desc

The query counts the number of times the field duration occurs in the log group and sorts the results in descending order. The values for duration are listed under the alias time.

Using comments in queries

CloudWatch Logs Insights supports comments in queries. Use the hash character (#) to set off comments. You can use comments to ignore lines in queries or document queries.

Example: Query

When the following query is run, the second line is ignored.


fields @timestamp, @message, accountId
# | filter accountId not like "7983124201998"
| sort @timestamp desc
| limit 20

Supported operations and functions

CloudWatch Logs Insights supports the following operations and functions.

Arithmetic operators

Arithmetic operators accept numeric data types as arguments and return numeric results. Use arithmetic operators in the filter and fields commands and as arguments for other functions.

Operation	Description
`a + b`	Addition
`a - b`	Subtraction
`a * b`	Multiplication
`a / b`	Division
`a ^ b`	Exponentiation (`2 ^ 3` returns `8`)
`a % b`	Remainder or modulus (`10 % 3` returns `1`)

Boolean operators

Use the Boolean operators and, or, and not.

Note

Use Boolean operators only in functions that return a value of TRUE or FALSE.

Comparison operators

Comparison operators accept all data types as arguments and return a Boolean result. Use comparison operations in the filter command and as arguments for other functions.

Operator	Description
`=`	Equal
`!=`	Not equal
`<`	Less than
`>`	Greater than
`<=`	Less than or equal to
`>=`	Greater than or equal to

Numeric operations

Numeric operations accept numeric data types as arguments and return numeric results. Use numeric operations in the filter and fields commands and as arguments for other functions.

Operation	Result type	Description
`abs(a: number)`	number	Absolute value
`ceil(a: number)`	number	Round to ceiling (the smallest integer that is greater than the value of `a`)
`floor(a: number)`	number	Round to floor (the largest integer that is smaller than the value of `a`)
`greatest(a: number, ...numbers: number[])`	number	Returns the largest value
`least(a: number, ...numbers: number[])`	number	Returns the smallest value
`log(a: number)`	number	Natural log
`sqrt(a: number)`	number	Square root

Datetime functions

Use datetime functions in the fields and filtercommands and as arguments for other functions. Use these functions to create time buckets for queries with aggregate functions. Use time periods that consist of a number and m for minutes or h for hours. For example, 10m is 10 minutes, and 1h is 1 hour. The following table contains a list of the different datetime functions that you can use in query commands. The table lists each function's result type and contains a description of each function.

Tip

When you create a query command, you can use the time interval selector to select a time period that you want to query. For example, you can set a time period between 5 and 30-minute intervals; 1, 3, and 12-hour intervals; or a custom time frame. You also can set time periods between specific dates.

Function	Result type	Description
`bin(period: Period)`	Timestamp	Rounds the value of `@timestamp` to the given time period and then truncates. For example, `bin(5m)` rounds the value of `@timestamp` to 5 minutes before it truncates.
`datefloor(timestamp: Timestamp, period: Period)`	Timestamp	Truncates the timestamp to the given period. For example, `datefloor(@timestamp, 1h)` truncates all values of `@timestamp` to the bottom of the hour.
`dateceil(timestamp: Timestamp, period: Period)`	Timestamp	Rounds up the timestamp to the given period and then truncates. For example, `dateceil(@timestamp, 1h)` truncates all values of `@timestamp` to the top of the hour.
`fromMillis(fieldName: number)`	Timestamp	Interprets the input field as the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch and converts it to a timestamp.
`toMillis(fieldName: Timestamp)`	number	Converts the timestamp found in the named field into a number representing the milliseconds since the Unix epoch. For example, `toMillis(@timestamp)` converts the timestamp `2022-01-14T13:18:031.000-08:00` to `1642195111000`.

Note

Currently, CloudWatch Logs Insights doesn't support filtering logs with human readable timestamps.

General functions

Use general functions in the fields and filter commands and as arguments for other functions.

Function	Result type	Description
`ispresent(fieldName: LogField)`	Boolean	Returns `true` if the field exists
`coalesce(fieldName: LogField, ...fieldNames: LogField[])`	LogField	Returns the first non-null value from the list

IP address string functions

Use IP address string functions in the filter and fields commands and as arguments for other functions.

Function	Result type	Description
`isValidIp(fieldName: string)`	boolean	Returns `true` if the field is a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address.
`isValidIpV4(fieldName: string)`	boolean	Returns `true` if the field is a valid IPv4 address.
`isValidIpV6(fieldName: string)`	boolean	Returns `true` if the field is a valid IPv6 address.
`isIpInSubnet(fieldName: string, subnet: string)`	boolean	Returns `true` if the field is a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address within the specified v4 or v6 subnet. When you specify the subnet, use CIDR notation such as `192.0.2.0/24` or `2001:db8::/32`.
`isIpv4InSubnet(fieldName: string, subnet: string)`	boolean	Returns `true` if the field is a valid IPv4 address within the specified v4 subnet. When you specify the subnet, use CIDR notation such as `192.0.2.0/24`.
`isIpv6InSubnet(fieldName: string, subnet: string)`	boolean	Returns `true` if the field is a valid IPv6 address within the specified v6 subnet. When you specify the subnet, use CIDR notation such as `2001:db8::/32`.

Stats aggregation functions

Use aggregation functions in the stats command and as arguments for other functions.

Function	Result type	Description
`avg(fieldName: NumericLogField)`	number	The average of the values in the specified field.
`count()` `count(fieldName: LogField)`	number	Counts the log events. `count()` (or `count(*)`) counts all events returned by the query, while `count(fieldName)` counts all records that include the specified field name.
`count_distinct(fieldName: LogField)`	number	Returns the number of unique values for the field. If the field has very high cardinality (contains many unique values), the value returned by `count_distinct` is just an approximation.
`max(fieldName: LogField)`	LogFieldValue	The maximum of the values for this log field in the queried logs.
`min(fieldName: LogField)`	LogFieldValue	The minimum of the values for this log field in the queried logs.
`pct(fieldName: LogFieldValue, percent: number)`	LogFieldValue	A percentile indicates the relative standing of a value in a dataset. For example, `pct(@duration, 95)` returns the `@duration` value at which 95 percent of the values of `@duration` are lower than this value, and 5 percent are higher than this value.
`stddev(fieldName: NumericLogField)`	number	The standard deviation of the values in the specified field.
`sum(fieldName: NumericLogField)`	number	The sum of the values in the specified field.

Stats non-aggregation functions

Use non-aggregation functions in the stats command and as arguments for other functions.

Function	Result type	Description
`earliest(fieldName: LogField)`	LogField	Returns the value of `fieldName` from the log event that has the earliest timestamp in the queried logs.
`latest(fieldName: LogField)`	LogField	Returns the value of `fieldName` from the log event that has the latest timestamp in the queried logs.
`sortsFirst(fieldName: LogField)`	LogField	Returns the value of `fieldName` that sorts first in the queried logs.
`sortsLast(fieldName: LogField)`	LogField	Returns the value of `fieldName` that sorts last in the queried logs.

String functions

Use string functions in the fields and filter commands and as arguments for other functions.

Function	Result type	Description
`isempty(fieldName: string)`	Number	Returns `1` if the field is missing or is an empty string.
`isblank(fieldName: string)`	Number	Returns `1` if the field is missing, an empty string, or contains only white space.
`concat(str: string, ...strings: string[])`	string	Concatenates the strings.
`ltrim(str: string)` `ltrim(str: string, trimChars: string)`	string	If the function does not have a second argument, it removes white space from the left of the string. If the function has a second string argument, it does not remove white space. Instead, it removes the characters in `trimChars` from the left of `str`. For example, `ltrim("xyZxyfooxyZ","xyZ")` returns `"fooxyZ"`.
`rtrim(str: string)` `rtrim(str: string, trimChars: string)`	string	If the function does not have a second argument, it removes white space from the right of the string. If the function has a second string argument, it does not remove white space. Instead, it removes the characters of `trimChars` from the right of `str`. For example, `rtrim("xyZfooxyxyZ","xyZ")` returns `"xyZfoo"`.
`trim(str: string)` `trim(str: string, trimChars: string)`	string	If the function does not have a second argument, it removes white space from both ends of the string. If the function has a second string argument, it does not remove white space. Instead, it removes the characters of `trimChars` from both sides of `str`. For example, `trim("xyZxyfooxyxyZ","xyZ")` returns `"foo"`.
`strlen(str: string)`	number	Returns the length of the string in Unicode code points.
`toupper(str: string)`	string	Converts the string to uppercase.
`tolower(str: string)`	string	Converts the string to lowercase.
`substr(str: string, startIndex: number)` `substr(str: string, startIndex: number, length: number)`	string	Returns a substring from the index specified by the number argument to the end of the string. If the function has a second number argument, it contains the length of the substring to be retrieved. For example, `substr("xyZfooxyZ",3, 3)` returns `"foo"`.
`replace(fieldName: string, searchValue: string, replaceValue: string)`	string	Replaces all instances of `searchValue` in `fieldName: string` with `replaceValue`. For example, the function `replace(logGroup,"smoke_test","Smoke")` searches for log events where the field `logGroup` contains the string value `smoke_test` and replaces the value with the string `Smoke`.
`strcontains(str: string, searchValue: string)`	number	Returns 1 if `str` contains `searchValue` and 0 otherwise.

Warning Javascript is disabled or is unavailable in your browser.

To use the Amazon Web Services Documentation, Javascript must be enabled. Please refer to your browser's Help pages for instructions.

Document Conventions

Tutorial: Run a query that produces a time series visualization

Visualizing log data in graphs