# Hybrid Grok and Dissect Parsing
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/hybrid-grok-and-dissect-parsing/288021
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [October 29, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/hybrid-grok-and-dissect-parsing/288021 "2021-10-29T16:32:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Nico\_Pampaloni](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nico_Pampaloni)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/hybrid-grok-and-dissect-parsing/288021/1 "2021-10-29T16:32:34Z")
Hi Everyone! I have a question about using Dissect and Grok together when working with a format that has varying structure. A line in my log file might look like this:
word,word.word.word.word|timestamp|number,number,name|timestamp
However the number of names in a line can change so it may also look like:
word,word.word.word.word|timestamp|number,number,name|name|name|timestamp
For log files with the same structure but only single names in them, I am using Dissect to parse the different fields and it's working great. For this specific log with a varying number of names in it, I can't seem to find a way to use Dissect and Grok together to make this work.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/hybrid-grok-and-dissect-parsing/288021/2 "2021-10-29T17:33:28Z")
Use dissect to parse the fixed prefix and grok with an array of patterns for the variable part. An example is [here](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metatrader-how-parse-such-logs/248406/2).
---
### Author:  [@Nico\_Pampaloni](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nico_Pampaloni)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2021, 11:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/hybrid-grok-and-dissect-parsing/288021/3 "2021-11-01T11:25:35Z")
Thanks for the response!! That's super helpful. My only issue now is how to get Grok to deal with a varying number of name fields.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2021, 11:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/hybrid-grok-and-dissect-parsing/288021/4 "2021-11-29T11:26:28Z")
This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.