Splunk != vs. NOT Difference Detail Explained with Examples
Different between
!=
and NOT
in Splunk search condition, search result and performance impact. How to exclude field from search result?When you want to exclude results from your search you can use
the NOT
operator or the !=
field expression.
However there is a significant difference in the results that are returned from these two methods.
!=
vs. NOT
Comparison
- Both!= field expression and NOT operator exclude events from your search, but produce different results
- Example:
status != 200
- Returns events where status field exists and value in field doesn’t equal 200
- Example:
NOT status = 200
- Returns events where status field exists and value in field doesn’t equal 200 – and all events where status field doesn’t exist
- Does
!=
andNOT
ever yield the same results?- Yes, if you know the field you’re evaluating always exists in the data you’re searching
- For example:
index=web sourcetype=access_combined status!=200
index=web sourcetype=access_combined NOT status=200
yields same results becausestatus
field always exists inaccess_combined
sourcetype.
Searching with != or NOT is not efficient
Using the !=
expression or NOT
operator to exclude events
from your search results is not an efficient method of filtering events.
The execution cost for a search is actually less when you explicitly
specify the values that you want to include in the search results.
Reference

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