1 Foreach functions

Overview

Foreach functions return aggregate values from the history of multiple items. Foreach functions are used in aggregate calculations.

The following foreach functions are supported:

FunctionDescription
avg_foreachReturns average values
count_foreachReturns the number of values
last_foreachReturns last values
max_foreachReturns maximum values
min_foreachReturns minimum values
sum_foreachReturns the sum of values

Foreach functions return an array of values - one for each item. Items are selected by using filters in the first parameter.

See aggregate calculations for more details on using foreach functions.

Parameters

Foreach functions support two parameters:

  1. foreach_function(item filter,time period)

for example:

  1. avg_foreach(/*/mysql.qps?[group="MySQL Servers"],5m)
Item filter

The first parameter allows to filter the items we are interested in. A complex filter may be used, referencing the item key, host group and tags, as illustrated by the examples:

Syntax exampleDescription
/host/key[abc,]Matches similar items on this host.
//keyMatches the same item of any host.
//key?[group=”ABC” and tag=”tagname:value”]Matches the same item of any host from the ABC group having ‘tagname:value’ tags.
//key[a,*,c]?[(group=”ABC” and tag=”Tag1”) or (group=”DEF” and (tag=”Tag2” or tag=”Tag3:value”))]Matches similar items of any host from the ABC or DEF group with the respective tags.

All referenced items must exist and collect data. Only enabled items on enabled hosts are included in the calculations.

If the item key of a referenced item is changed, the filter must be updated manually.

Specifying a parent host group includes the parent group and all nested host groups with their items.

Time period

The second parameter allows to specify the time period for aggregation. The time period can only be expressed as time, the amount of values (prefixed with #) is not supported.

Supported unit symbols can be used in this parameter for convenience, for example ‘5m’ (five minutes) instead of ‘300s’ (300 seconds) or ‘1d’ (one day) instead of ‘86400’ (86400 seconds).

Timeperiod is ignored by the server if the function is last_foreach and can thus be omitted:

  1. last_foreach(/*/key?[group="host group"])