Parse nodrop option

The nodrop option forces results to also include messages that don't match any segment of the parse expression.

For all parse operators, messages must match at least one segment of the parse expression or they are dropped from the results. Adding the nodrop option forces results to also include messages that don't match any segment of the parse expression.

When your query has multiple parse expressions, using nodrop acts as an OR condition. In this case, using nodrop will pass any non-matching logs to the next parse expression. If the following parse expression does not use nodrop, the results from the first parse expression using nodrop, even when they don't match the following parse expression are still returned in your search results.

Syntax

• | parse "a=*," as <field> nodrop

  In this case, messages that match a as well as all other messages are returned.
  

• | parse "a=*," as <field1> nodrop | parse "b=*," as <field2>

  In this case, messages that match either a or b are output. Everything else is dropped.
  

• | parse "a=*," as <field1> | parse "b=*," as <field2>

  In this case, both parse operators are implicitly dropping non-matching messages. This means only messages that match both a and b are output.
  

• | parse "a=*," as <field1> nodrop | parse "b=*," as <field2> nodrop | parse "c=*," as <field3> nodrop | parse "d=*," as <field4>

  In this case, messages that match (a or b or c or d) are output. Everything else is dropped.

Rules

• Messages with zero matches are included in the output but don't contain any alias fields or tags related to the parse expression.
• Using the nodrop option, you can express advanced boolean logic in choosing your desired message output when you chain the Parse operators.
• The nodrop option is not supported with the csv, split, parseDate, or parseHex operators.

Examples

Use the nodrop option with a parser

Queries can use the nodrop option with a parser:

_sourceCategory=Apache* 
| parse "[sessionId=*]" as sessionid nodrop

Use the nodrop option with parse regex

You can parse out an IP address using parse regex and parse nodrop:

_sourceCategory=Apache* 
| parse regex "(\<src_i\>\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})" nodrop

Use parse nodrop as an OR condition

When specifying nodrop in one parse expression but not another the search will return logs that match either the first OR second parse statements. For example, you can return logs that match either GET or POST in a URL:

_sourceCategory=Apache*
| parse "GET * HTTP" as url nodrop 
| parse "POST * HTTP" as url