SPLK-1002 Advanced Visualization and Lookups Practice Question
A team uses a lookup table to map employee IDs to department names. The lookup is defined in transforms.conf with max_matches=1. Some events have multiple employee IDs in the emp_id field (comma-separated). The analyst wants to see the department for each ID. Which approach should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse makemv (which only creates a multivalue field) with mvexpand (which actually creates separate events), leading them to choose Option A and miss the need to expand before lookup.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use | eval emp_ids=split(emp_id, ",") | mvexpand emp_ids | lookup employee_lookup emp_id OUTPUT department
It first splits the comma-separated emp_id field into a multivalue field using split(), then expands each value into its own event with mvexpand, and finally performs the lookup with max_matches=1 to retrieve the department for each individual ID. This ensures that the lookup processes each ID separately, even though the original field contained multiple values.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use | makemv delim="," emp_id | lookup employee_lookup emp_id OUTPUT department
Why it's wrong here
Makemv creates a multivalue field but lookup only matches the first value.
- ✗
Use | eval department=match(emp_id, "(?i)" . lookup_table)
Why it's wrong here
Match function does not perform lookups.
- ✓
Use | eval emp_ids=split(emp_id, ",") | mvexpand emp_ids | lookup employee_lookup emp_id OUTPUT department
Why this is correct
Correctly splits and expands each ID, then looks up department.
- ✗
Use | inputlookup employee_lookup where emp_id IN (emp_id_field)
Why it's wrong here
Inputlookup reads the lookup file, not the events.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 475 original SPLK-1002 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SPLK-1002 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Splunk certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SPLK-1002 exam.