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Basic Syntax

A search query is composed of one or more expressions. Each expression can be a comparison between a key and a value, or a logical combination of other expressions.

span_name=gorm.Query
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You can also enter a seach value without a key to search on a default key. For logs, this would be the message and on traces it would be the span_name.

gorm.Query
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Any custom attributes you send in sessions, logs, and traces can be filters on as well.

user_id=42
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Keys and Values

Keys are identifiers, which can include any combination of alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), periods (.), dashes (-), and asterisks (*).

Values can be strings with any character. In order to use spaces or special characters, you must enclose the string in quotes (", ').

Wildcards

You can use * in values to match on part of a pattern.

  • span_name=gorm.* matches all span_name values that start with gorm.
  • span_name=*.Query matches all span_name values that end with .Query
  • span_name=*orm* matches all values that contain orm

Note that if you want to use a value with a space or special character, you will need to wrap the value in quotations.

tag="*query error*" visited-url="https://app.highlight.io/*"
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Regex Expressions

You can search with regex expressions by using the matches query operator =\[your regex here]\.

  • clickTextContent=/\w.+\w/ matches all clickTextContent that start and end with any word
  • browser_version=/\d\.\d\.\d/ matches all browser_versions in the form [0-9].[0-9].[0-9]

Note that if you want to use a regex expression with a space or special character, you will need to wrap the value in quotations.

tag="/\w \w/" visited-url="/https://app.highlight.io/\d/.+/"
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Comparisons

Comparisons are made using operators. The following operators are supported:

  • = - Equal to
  • != - Not equal to
  • < - Less than
  • <= - Less than or equal to
  • > - Greater than
  • >= - Greater than or equal to
Exist & Not Exist

You can search if a key exists or does not exist with the exists operator. For example, if you wanted all the traces with a connected session, you would do use the following query:

secure_session_id exists
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The exists also works with the not keyword. An example is when you only want the root level spans when searching traces, then you would use this query

parent_span_id not exists
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Logical Combinations

Expressions can be combined using the logical operators AND, OR, and NOT.

  • AND - Both expressions must be true
  • OR - At least one of the expressions must be true
  • NOT - The following expression must be false

Note that there is an implicit AND between all filters unless you specify an OR directly. For example:

service_name=private-graph span_name=gorm.Query
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This is equivalent to:

service_name=private-graph AND span_name=gorm.Query
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Grouping Expressions

Expressions can be grouped using parentheses ( and ). For example:

(key1=value1 AND key2=value2) OR key3=value3
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You can also use parentheses to group values in an expression:

service_name=(private-graph OR public-graph)
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Query Examples

Here are some examples of valid search queries:

  • service_name=private-graph
  • service_name=public-graph AND span_name!=gorm.Query
  • service_name=worker OR span_name=gorm.Query
  • service_name!=private-graph
  • (service_name=public-graph AND span_name=gorm.Query) OR duration>=100000
Search Segments

All of our search pages allow you to save a search and reuse it later. We call these segments. Create segments for common sets of filters you want to use across Highlight.

Special characters

When using special characters in a value, the value should be wrapped in quotations. Special characters include spaces, operator characters (!, =, :, <, >), and parentheses.

More Reading

See the links below for more details on searching in specific parts of the product.