# How to clear counter without loss?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clear-counter-without-loss/2034
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [June 5, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clear-counter-without-loss/2034 "2015-06-05T18:05:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kelvinfann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kelvinfann)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clear-counter-without-loss/2034/1 "2015-06-05T18:05:11Z")
Hi!
I am relatively new to log stash, so forgive my ignorance.
I am trying to count the throughput of logs in log stash for a fixed amount sets of time ('.count'). Naturally, therefore, I have been trying the filter 'metric', with:
- meter =\> "message"
- add\_tag =\> "metric"
- periodic\_flush =\> true
- flush\_interval =\> 10
- clear\_interval =\> 10
The problem with this is that log stash clears before it flushes, which results in no data output. I could have a difference in time between flush and clear, but that opens the room for messages coming in-between the flush and clear time, which would result in a miscount, which I cannot afford.
What I need to be able to do is assign the metric to be flushed and then immediately cleared sequentially, without other messages going through between the flush and clear so I can get an accurate count of the messages sent through in the past X seconds (every X seconds) and pass that through as a separate log. Is that possible?
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 5:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-clear-counter-without-loss/2034/2 "2017-07-06T05:38:23Z")