Accessing variable value when using key/value variable

Grafana MySQL
1

I am using a variable called category that is defined as a custom variable using a key:value pair. The reason for this is that I wanted to put a clean name to the actual value. My initial variable definition was

Rules Triggered : rules_triggered, Network Firewall : network_firewall, BOT : bot

In the SQL statement, I am referencing the variable using

sum(${category:text}

However, when doing so only the key portion of the variable definition gets used, which breaks the SQL query. In order to adjust I had to redefine by variable only using the value portion of the previously defined variable

rules_triggered, network_firewall, bot

Is there a way to continue using the key:value pair sequence and reference it using the ${category:text} syntax and be able to retrieve the associated value instead of the key?

2

are you showing this variable as a drop down choice?

3

:text is for key (nice human name - Rules Triggered), you need :value for value (human unfriendly, machine names/ids - rules_triggered).

1 Like
Custom Variables: generally failing for my use-case
4

Yes, the variable is displayed as a drop down list

5

Hi. I have seen reference to this syntax before but I am a little confused. In my SQL statement within the panel I am using

sum(${category:text}

If I change the variable to allow Multi-value and then update the SQL to

sum(${category:value}

The resulting interpolation is

sum({unique_hits,rules_triggered})

The reason for using the :text syntax was to ensure the field separator would be a + sign. I do not understand your suggestion to use both :value and :text … how does that syntax look?

6

I don’t believe that key/value variable was designated for multi value.
Use additional “help” dashboard variable, where you clean string {unique_hits,rules_triggered} with SQL, e.g. (not real full SQL)

SELECT REPLACE(${category:value}, '{' ,'')

and use that cleaned SQL string in the query, so valid SQL will be generated at the end.

7

is this the same question that was asked in slack thread?