Expression syntax

The following sections provide information about expression syntax in Data Prepper.

Supported operators

Operators are listed in order of precedence (top to bottom, left to right).

Reserved for possible future functionality

Reserved symbol set: ^, *, /, %, +, -, xor, =, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=, ++, --, ${<text>}

Set initializer

The set initializer defines a set or term and/or expressions.

Examples

The following are examples of set initializer syntax.

HTTP status codes

{200, 201, 202}

HTTP response payloads

{"Created", "Accepted"}

Handle multiple event types with different keys

{/request_payload, /request_message}

Priority expression

A priority expression identifies an expression that will be evaluated at the highest priority level. A priority expression must contain an expression or value; empty parentheses are not supported.

Example

/is_cool == (/name == "Steven")

Relational operators

Relational operators are used to test the relationship of two numeric values. The operands must be numbers or JSON Pointers that resolve to numbers.

Syntax

<Number | JSON Pointer> < <Number | JSON Pointer>
<Number | JSON Pointer> <= <Number | JSON Pointer>
<Number | JSON Pointer> > <Number | JSON Pointer>
<Number | JSON Pointer> >= <Number | JSON Pointer>

Example

/status_code >= 200 and /status_code < 300

Equality operators

Equality operators are used to test whether two values are equivalent.

Syntax

<Any> == <Any>
<Any> != <Any>

Examples

/is_cool == true
3.14 != /status_code
{1, 2} == /event/set_property

Using equality operators to check for a JSON Pointer

Equality operators can also be used to check whether a JSON Pointer exists by comparing the value with null.

Syntax

<JSON Pointer> == null
<JSON Pointer> != null
null == <JSON Pointer>
null != <JSON Pointer>

Example

/response == null
null != /response

Conditional expression

A conditional expression is used to chain together multiple expressions and/or values.

Syntax

<Any> and <Any>
<Any> or <Any>
not <Any>

Example

/status_code == 200 and /message == "Hello world"
/status_code == 200 or /status_code == 202
not /status_code in {200, 202}
/response == null
/response != null

Definitions

This section provides expression definitions.

Literal

A literal is a fundamental value that has no children:

• Float: Supports values from 3.40282347 × 1038 to 1.40239846 × 10−45.
• Integer: Supports values from −2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647.
• Boolean: Supports true or false.
• JSON Pointer: See the JSON Pointer section for details.
• String: Supports valid Java strings.
• Null: Supports null check to see whether a JSON Pointer exists.

Expression string

An expression string takes the highest priority in a Data Prepper expression and only supports one expression string resulting in a return value. An expression string is not the same as an expression.

Statement

A statement is the highest-priority component of an expression string.

Expression

An expression is a generic component that contains a Primary or an Operator. Expressions may contain expressions. An expression’s imminent children can contain 0–1 Operators.

Primary

• Set
• Priority Expression
• Literal

Operator

An operator is a hardcoded token that identifies the operation used in an expression.

JSON Pointer

A JSON Pointer is a literal used to reference a value within an event and provided as context for an expression string. JSON Pointers are identified by a leading / containing alphanumeric characters or underscores, delimited by /. JSON Pointers can use an extended character set if wrapped in double quotes (") using the escape character \. Note that JSON Pointers require ~ and / characters, which should be used as part of the path and not as a delimiter that needs to be escaped.

The following are examples of JSON Pointers:

• ~0 representing ~
• ~1 representing /

Shorthand syntax (Regex, \w = [A-Za-z_])

/\w+(/\w+)*

Example of shorthand

The following is an example of shorthand:

/Hello/World/0

Example of escaped syntax

The following is an example of escaped syntax:

"/<Valid String Characters | Escaped Character>(/<Valid String Characters | Escaped Character>)*"

Example of an escaped JSON Pointer

The following is an example of an escaped JSON Pointer:

# Path
# { "Hello - 'world/" : [{ "\"JsonPointer\"": true }] }
"/Hello - 'world\//0/\"JsonPointer\""

White space

White space is optional surrounding relational operators, regex equality operators, equality operators, and commas. White space is required surrounding set initializers, priority expressions, set operators, and conditional expressions.