[[split-processor]]
=== Split processor
++++
<titleabbrev>Split</titleabbrev>
++++

Splits a field into an array using a separator character. Only works on string fields.

[[split-options]]
.Split Options
[options="header"]
|======
| Name              | Required  | Default  | Description
| `field`           | yes       | -        | The field to split
| `separator`       | yes       | -        | A regex which matches the separator, eg `,` or `\s+`
| `target_field`    | no        | `field`  | The field to assign the split value to, by default `field` is updated in-place
| `ignore_missing`  | no        | `false`  | If `true` and `field` does not exist, the processor quietly exits without modifying the document
| `preserve_trailing`| no       | `false`  | Preserves empty trailing fields, if any.
include::common-options.asciidoc[]
|======

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
  "split": {
    "field": "my_field",
    "separator": "\\s+" <1>
  }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// NOTCONSOLE
<1> Treat all consecutive whitespace characters as a single separator

If the `preserve_trailing` option is enabled, any trailing empty fields in the input will be preserved. For example,
in the configuration below, a value of `A,,B,,` in the `my_field` property will be split into an array of five elements
`["A", "", "B", "", ""]` with two empty trailing fields. If the `preserve_trailing` property were not enabled, the two
empty trailing fields would be discarded resulting in the three-element array `["A", "", "B"]`.

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
  "split": {
    "field": "my_field",
    "separator": ",",
    "preserve_trailing": true
  }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// NOTCONSOLE