Search Syntax

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Overview

When you add a processor to a pipeline, you can filter logs to process only a defined subset. This document goes over the following information:

Free text search: to search the message field
Attribute search: to search attribute keys and values
Arrays: to search within an array of nested values
Boolean operators
Special characters and spaces that must be escaped
Wildcards

Note: Worker version 2.11 and newer uses an upgraded search syntax. After you upgrade the Worker to version 2.11, you might need to update your filter queries to match the new syntax. See Upgrade Your Filter Queries to the New Search Syntax for more information.

Search syntax

There are two types of filter queries you can use:

Free text
Attribute

Free text search

Free text search only searches the message field and is case insensitive. It is composed of terms and operators. There are two types of terms:

A single term is a single word such as test or hello.
A sequence is a group of words surrounded by double quotes, such as "hello dolly".

The following are free text search examples:

hello: Searches for the exact string hello. For example, {"message": "hello world"} is a matching log.
Hello world: Searches for hello and world. For example, "hello beautiful world" is a match.; This query can also be written as Hello AND world.; Note: The message must contain both hello and world to match.
"hello world": Searches for a sequence of words. For example, "hello world", "hello-world", and "Hello, world" are all matches.

Attribute search

You can search attribute keys and values. For example, if your attribute key is url and you want to filter on the url value www.datadoghq.com, enter: url:www.datadoghq.com.

To filter for events that have a specific attribute key, use the _exists_ syntax. For example, if you use the query _exists_:service, the event {"service": "postgres"} matches the query, but the event {"env": "prod"} does not match.

Note: Attribute searches are case sensitive.

Here are some attribute search syntax examples and logs that match the syntax:

status:ok service:flask-web-app: Matches logs with the status ok from your flask-web-app service.; This query can also be written as: status:ok AND service:flask-web-app.
user.status:inactive: Matches logs with the status inactive nested under the user attribute.
http.url:/api-v1/*: Matches logs containing a value in the http.url attribute that starts with /api-v1/.
http.status:[200 TO 299]: Matches logs containing an http.status value that is greater than or equal to 200 and less than or equal to 299.; Notes:
- [..] Square brackets mean the ranges are inclusive.
- Ranges can be used across any attribute.
http.status:{200 TO 299}: Matches logs containing an http.status value that is greater than 200 or less than 299.; Notes:
- {..} Curly brackets mean the ranges are exclusive.
- Ranges can be used across any attribute.
http.status_code:[200 TO 299] http.url_details.path:/api-v1/*: Matches logs containing both:
- An http.status_code value that is greater than or equal to 200 and less than or equal to 299
- A value in the http.url_details.path attribute that start with /api-v1/.
"service.status":disabled: Matches logs with "service.status": "disabled". This filter syntax searches for a literal . in the attribute key.; See Path notation for more information.
_exists_:service: Matches logs with the attribute key service. For example, the query matches {"service": "postgres"}, but does not match {"env": "prod"}.

Path notation

To understand path notation, let’s look at the following log structure:

{
    "outer_key": {
        "inner_key": "inner_value",
        "a": {
            "double_inner_key": "double_inner_value",
            "b": "b value"
        },
        "c": "c value"
    },
    "d": "d value"
}

In this example, use the following reference rules:

Use outer_key.inner_key to reference the key with the value inner_value.
Use outer_key.inner_key.double_inner_key to reference the key with the value double_inner_value.

If you want to search for a literal . in the attribute key, wrap the key in escaped quotes in the search query. For example, the search query "service.status":disabled matches the event {"service.status": "disabled"}.

Boolean operators

You can use the following case sensitive Boolean operators to combine multiple terms in a search query.

Operator	Description
`AND`	Intersection: both terms are in the event.
`OR`	Union: either term is contained in the event.
`-` or `NOT`	Exclusion: the following term is not in the event.

The follow are example queries that use Boolean operators:

NOT (status:debug): Matches logs that do not have the status DEBUG.
host:COMP-A9JNGYK OR host:COMP-J58KAS: Only matches logs from those specific hosts.
Hello AND World: Searches for hello and world. For example, "hello beautiful world" is a match.; This query can also be written as: Hello world.; Note: The message must contain both hello and world to match.
hello AND status:info: Matches logs with a message field that contains hello and with status:info.
-http.status_code:200: Matches logs where http.status_code is not equal to 200
service:(postgres OR datadog_agent): Matches logs with the values postgres or datadog_agent for the service attribute. This query can also be written as: service:postgres OR service:datadog_agent

Escape special characters and spaces

The following characters are considered special and must be escaped with a backslash (\):

- ! && || > >= < <= ( ) { } [ ] " * ? : #, and spaces.

Notes:

/ is not considered a special character and doesn’t need to be escaped.
You can search for special characters inside of an attribute. See Search an attribute that contains special characters.
If you want to match logs that contain the special character ! in the message field, use the attribute search syntax: message:*!*.
- Note: You cannot use free text search queries to filter for log messages with special characters.

Search an attribute that contains special characters

Searching for an attribute value that contains special characters requires escaping or double quotes. For example, to search for an attribute my_app with the value hello:world, use the syntax: my_app:hello\:world or my_app:"hello:world".

Match a single special character or space

To match a single special character or space, use the ? wildcard. For example, to search for an attribute my_app with the value hello world again, use the syntax: my_app:hello?world?again.

Examples

To learn how to escape special characters and spaces in a search, let’s look at a log example:

{
    "service": "postgres",
    "status": "INFO",
    "tags": [
        "env:prod",
        "namespace:something",
        "reader:logs",
        "my_app:hello world again"
    ]
}

The following are search syntax examples that escape special characters and spaces in the log example:

tags:env*: Matches logs with a tag attribute value of env.
tags:(env\:prod OR env\:test): Matches logs with the tag env:prod or env:test in the tags array.; This query can also be written as tags:("env:prod" OR "env:test").
tags:env\:prod AND -tags:version\:beta: Matches logs that have env:prod and does not have version:beta in the tag array.; This query can also be written as tags:"env:prod" AND -tags:"version:beta".
my_app:hello\:world: Matches logs that contain my_app:hello:world.; This query can also be written as my_app:"hello:world".
my_app:hello?world?again: Matches logs that contain "my_app":"hello world again".

Arrays

In the following example, CloudWatch logs for Windows contain an array of JSON objects under Event.EventData.Data.

Event
{
EventData {
    Data [
        {"Name":"SubjectUserID1", "value":"12345"},
        {"Name":"SubjectUserID2", "value":"Admin"},
        {"Name":"ObjectServer", "value":"Security"}
	]
    }
}

If you use the filter query Event.EventData.Data.Name:ObjectServer, the above log event is matched because it contains a nested object with the attribute key Name and the value ObjectServer.

Wildcards

You can use * for wildcard searches. The following are wildcard search examples:

*network*: Matches logs with a message field value that contains network.
web*: Matches logs with a message field value that starts with web.
*web: Matches logs with a message field value that ends with web.
service:*mongo: Matches logs with service attribute values that ends with mongo.
service:web*: Matches logs that have a service attribute value that starts with web.

Notes:

You cannot use wildcards to search attribute keys, such as *:app or service*:app.
Wildcards only work as wildcards outside of double quotes.
- For example, "*test*" matches a log which has the string *test* in its message field, while *test* matches a log which has the string test anywhere in the message field.

Search for special characters or escaped characters

When searching for an attribute that contains special characters or requires escaping or double quotes, use the ? wildcard to match a single special character or space. For example, to search for an attribute my_attribute with the value hello world, use the syntax: my_attribute:hello?world.