Using top to show common field values

A very common question to answer is, "What values are most common?" When looking for errors, you are probably interested in what piece of code has the most errors. The top command provides a very simple way to answer this question. Let's step through a few examples.

First, run a search for errors:

source="impl_splunk_gen" error

Using our sample data, we find events containing the word error, a sampling of which is listed here:

2012-03-03T19:36:23.138-0600 ERROR Don't worry, be happy. [logger=AuthClass, user=mary, ip=1.2.3.4]
2012-03-03T19:36:22.244-0600 ERROR error, ERROR, Error! [logger=LogoutClass, user=mary, ip=3.2.4.5, network=green]
2012-03-03T19:36:21.158-0600 WARN error, ERROR, Error! [logger=LogoutClass, user=bob, ip=3.2.4.5, network=red]
2012-03-03T19:36:21.103-0600 ERROR Hello world. [logger=AuthClass, user=jacky, ip=4.3.2.1]
2012-03-03T19:36:19.832-0600 ERROR Nothing happened. This is worthless. Don't log this. [logger=AuthClass, user=bob, ip...