When is the pipe character, | , used in search strings?

The pipe character, |, is used in Splunk search strings to chain together commands and is essential for processing search results in a sequential manner. When placed before a command, it indicates the beginning of that command and allows the output of the preceding command to be passed as input to the command that follows the pipe.

In the provided example of the correct answer, using the pipe before 'stats' indicates that the results from the previous search are now being processed by the 'stats' command. This enables the user to apply statistical functions to the events produced by earlier processing stages in the search pipeline.

Understanding the use of the pipe is crucial in Splunk because it allows users to build complex queries by combining multiple commands together, refining their searches step-by-step for more effective data analysis. Each command can modify, filter, or aggregate data before passing it to the next in line, which is a powerful feature of Splunk's search processing language.