project-away

This page explains how to use the project-away operator function in APL.

The project-away operator in APL is used to exclude specific fields from the output of a query. This operator is useful when you want to return a subset of fields from a dataset, without needing to manually specify every field you want to keep. Instead, you specify the fields you want to remove, and the operator returns all remaining fields.

You can use project-away in scenarios where your dataset contains irrelevant or sensitive fields that you do not want in the results. It simplifies queries, especially when dealing with wide datasets, by allowing you to filter out fields without having to explicitly list every field to include.

For users of other query languages

If you come from other query languages, this section explains how to adjust your existing queries to achieve the same results in APL.

Splunk SPL users

In Splunk SPL, you use the fields command to remove fields from your results. In APL, the project-away operator provides a similar functionality, removing specified fields while returning the remaining ones.

Splunk example

... | fields - status, uri, method

ANSI SQL users

In SQL, you typically use the SELECT statement to explicitly include fields. In contrast, APL’s project-away operator allows you to exclude fields, offering a more concise approach when you want to keep many fields but remove a few.

SQL example

SELECT _time, req_duration_ms, id, geo.city, geo.country
FROM sample_http_logs;

Usage

Syntax

| project-away FieldName1, FieldName2, ...

Parameters

• FieldName: The field you want to exclude from the result set.

Returns

The project-away operator returns the input dataset excluding the specified fields. The result contains the same number of rows as the input table.

Use case examples

Log analysis

In log analysis, you might want to exclude unnecessary fields to focus on the relevant fields, such as timestamp, request duration, and user information.

Query

['sample-http-logs']
| project-away status, uri, method

Run in Playground

Output

_time	req_duration_ms	id	geo.city	geo.country
2023-10-17 10:23:00	120	u1	Seattle	USA
2023-10-17 10:24:00	135	u2	Berlin	Germany

The query removes the status, uri, and method fields from the output, keeping the focus on the key fields.

In log analysis, you might want to exclude unnecessary fields to focus on the relevant fields, such as timestamp, request duration, and user information.

Query

['sample-http-logs']
| project-away status, uri, method

Run in Playground

Output

_time	req_duration_ms	id	geo.city	geo.country
2023-10-17 10:23:00	120	u1	Seattle	USA
2023-10-17 10:24:00	135	u2	Berlin	Germany

The query removes the status, uri, and method fields from the output, keeping the focus on the key fields.

When analyzing OpenTelemetry traces, you can remove fields that aren’t necessary for specific trace evaluations, such as span IDs and statuses.

Query

['otel-demo-traces']
| project-away span_id, status_code

Run in Playground

Output

_time	duration	trace_id	service.name	kind
2023-10-17 11:01:00	00:00:03	t1	frontend	server
2023-10-17 11:02:00	00:00:02	t2	checkoutservice	client

The query removes the span_id and status_code fields, focusing on key service information.

In security log analysis, excluding unnecessary fields such as the HTTP method or URI can help focus on user behavior patterns and request durations.

Query

['sample-http-logs']
| project-away method, uri

Run in Playground

Output

_time	req_duration_ms	id	status	geo.city	geo.country
2023-10-17 10:25:00	95	u3	200	London	UK
2023-10-17 10:26:00	180	u4	404	Paris	France

The query excludes the method and uri fields, keeping information like status and geographical details.

Wildcard

Wildcard refers to a special character or a set of characters that can be used to substitute for any other character in a search pattern. Use wildcards to create more flexible queries and perform more powerful searches.

The syntax for wildcard can either be data* or ['data.fo']*.

Here’s how you can use wildcards in project-away:

['sample-http-logs']
| project-away status*, user*, is*,  ['geo.']*

Run in Playground

['github-push-event']
| project-away push*, repo*, ['commits']*

Run in Playground

List of related operators

• project: The project operator lets you select specific fields to include, rather than excluding them.
• extend: The extend operator is used to add new fields, whereas project-away is for removing fields.
• summarize: While project-away removes fields, summarize is useful for aggregating data across multiple fields.