Operators

Unary operators

The following unary operations are available. It is possible to use brackets around the operand to make it look like a function call as in the "defined" example below.

not

The not operator expects a boolean value. It will evaluate to undef if the value is undefined. If it receives an unknown value that evaluates to a non-boolean, it will result in a run-time execution error.

Example 1. Using the "not" Operand

If the $Success field has a value of false, an error is logged.

if not $Success log_error("Job failed");

defined

The defined operator will evaluate to TRUE if the operand is defined, otherwise FALSE.

Example 2. Using the Unary "defined" Operation

This statement is a no-op, it does nothing.

if defined undef log_info("never printed");

If the $EventTime field has not been set (due perhaps to failed parsing), it will be set to the current time.

if not defined($EventTime) $EventTime = now();

Binary operators

The following binary operations are available.

The operations are described with the following syntax:

LEFT_OPERAND_TYPE OPERATION RIGHT_OPERAND_TYPE = EVALUATED_VALUE_TYPE

=~

This is the regular expression match operation as in Perl. This operation takes a string and a regular expression operand and evaluates to a boolean value which will be TRUE if the regular expression matches the subject string. Captured sub-strings are accessible through numeric reference (such as $1) and the full subject string is placed into $0. Regular expression-based string substitution is supported with the s/// operator. For more details, see Regular Expressions.

string =~ regexp = boolean
regexp =~ string = boolean

Example 3. Regular Expression String Matching

A log message will be generated if the $Message field matches the regular expression.

if $Message =~ /^Test message/ log_info("matched");

!~

This is the opposite of =~

The expression will evaluate to TRUE if the regular expression does not match on the subject string. It can be also written as not LEFT_OPERAND =~ RIGHT_OPERAND. The s/// substitution operator is supported.

string !~ regexp = boolean
regexp !~ string = boolean

Example 4. Regular Expression Based Negative String Matching

A log message will be generated if the $Message field does not match the regular expression.

if $Message !~ /^Test message/ log_info("didn't match");

==

This operator compares two values for equality. Comparing a defined value with an undefined results in undef.

Example 5. Equality

A log message will be generated if $SeverityValue is 1.

if $SeverityValue == 1 log_info("severity is one");

!=

This operator compares two values for inequality. Comparing a defined value with an undefined results in undef.

Example 6. Inequality

A log message will be generated if $SeverityValue is not 1.

if $SeverityValue != 1 log_info("severity is not one");

<

This operation will evaluate to TRUE if the left operand is less than the right operand, and FALSE otherwise. Comparing a defined value with an undefined results in undef.

integer < integer = boolean
datetime < datetime = boolean

Example 7. Less

A log message will be generated if $SeverityValue is less than 1.

if $SeverityValue < 1 log_info("severity is less than one");

<=

This operation will evaluate to TRUE if the left operand is less than or equal to the right operand, and FALSE otherwise. Comparing a defined value with an undefined results in undef.

integer <= integer = boolean
datetime <= datetime = boolean

Example 8. Less or Equal

A log message will be generated if $SeverityValue is less than or equal to 1.

if $SeverityValue < 1 log_info("severity is less than or equal to one");

>

This operation will evaluate to TRUE if the left operand is greater than the right operand, and FALSE otherwise. Comparing a defined value with an undefined results in undef.

integer > integer = boolean
datetime > datetime = boolean

Example 9. Greater

A log message will be generated if $SeverityValue is greater than 1.

if $SeverityValue > 1 log_info("severity is greater than one");

>=

This operation will evaluate to TRUE if the left operand is greater than or equal to the right operand, and FALSE otherwise. Comparing a defined value with an undefined results in undef.

integer >= integer = boolean
datetime >= datetime = boolean

Example 10. Greater or Equal

A log message will be generated if $SeverityValue is greater than or equal to 1.

if $SeverityValue >= 1 log_info("severity is greater than or equal to one");

and

This operation evaluates to TRUE if and only if both operands are TRUE. The operation will evaluate to undef if either operand is undefined.

boolean and boolean = boolean

Example 11. And Operation

A log message will be generated only if both $SeverityValue equals 1 and $FacilityValue equals 2.

if $SeverityValue == 1 and $FacilityValue == 2 log_info("1 and 2");

or

This operation evaluates to TRUE if either operand is TRUE. The operation will evaluate to undef if both operands are undefined.

boolean or boolean = boolean

Example 12. Or Operation

A log message will be generated if $SeverityValue is equal to either 1 or 2.

if $SeverityValue == 1 or $SeverityValue == 2 log_info("1 or 2");

+

This operation will result in an integer if both operands are integers. If either operand is a string, the result will be a string where non-string typed values are converted to strings. In this case it acts as a concatenation operator, like the dot (.) operator in Perl. Adding an undefined value to a non-string will result in undef.

integer + integer = integer
string + undef = string
undef + string = string
undef + undef = undef
string + string = string (Concatenate two strings.)
datetime + integer = datetime (Add the number of seconds in the right value to the datetime stored in the left value.)
integer + datetime = datetime (Add the number of seconds in the left value to the datetime stored in the right value.)

Example 13. Concatenation