# Split not splitting?

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/split-not-splitting/124601
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [March 19, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/split-not-splitting/124601 "2018-03-19T15:46:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![cawoodm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cawoodm/32/14083_2.png) [@cawoodm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cawoodm)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/split-not-splitting/124601/1 "2018-03-19T15:46:47Z")

</div>

We want to split a URL into it's path components and apply some logic based on parts of the URL.

Filter:

```
mutate {
    copy => {"url" => "path"}
    split => {"path" => "/"}
}

```

Result:

```
{
...
     "url" => "/foo/bar/20771042",
     "path" => "/foo/bar/20771042",
...
}

```

We were expecting an array but path looks (in LogStash console and Kibana) to be a simple string.

Using `split => ["path", "/"]` or `split => {"path" => "\/"}` makes no difference.

Shouldn't `path` become an array like `["foo", "bar", ...]`?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![magnusbaeck](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/magnusbaeck/32/44943_2.png) [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2018, 6:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/split-not-splitting/124601/2 "2018-03-19T18:29:52Z")

</div>

> <https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-filter-mutate/issues/28>

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![cawoodm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cawoodm/32/14083_2.png) [@cawoodm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cawoodm)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2018, 8:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/split-not-splitting/124601/3 "2018-03-20T08:10:14Z")

</div>

Yep, splitting the mutate solves the non-splitting split!

```
mutate { copy => {"url" => "path"} }
mutate { split => {"path" => "/"} }

```

Result:

```
"path" => [
    [0] "",
    [1] "bcpstorefront",
    [2] "otherlink2"
]

```

Bonus Question: Any neat way to remove the empty ``[0] "" entry?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![cawoodm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cawoodm/32/14083_2.png) [@cawoodm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cawoodm)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/split-not-splitting/124601/4 "2018-03-20T12:42:35Z")

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Gottit!

```
mutate { remove_field => ["path[0]"] }
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/split-not-splitting/124601/5 "2018-04-17T12:42:55Z")

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