View field statistics in Discover

If you don't know yet what your data looks like, the Field statistics view in Discover shows each field's most common values, ranges, and how many documents contain it. That helps you spot data problems and decide what to chart before you build visualizations.

  • Make sure Discover is in classic mode. ES|QL mode doesn't support this functionality. To switch, refer to Switch to Discover's classic mode.
  • Discover must have a data view selected and a time range that contains data.
  • The Field statistics view is on by default. If it's missing from Discover, check whether the Show field statistics advanced setting is turned on.
  • This example uses the web logs sample data. To follow along, add it, or use your own data.

  1. Go to Discover.

  2. Expand the data view menu, and select Kibana Sample Data Logs.

  3. If you don't see any results, expand the time range, for example, to Last 7 days.

  4. Select Field statistics (or View as → Field statistics, depending on your version). The table summarizes, for each field, how many documents in the sample contain it for the selected time period, the number of distinct values, and the distribution.

    Field statistics view in Discover with the View as menu open.

  5. Expand the machine.ram field. For numeric fields, Discover provides the document statistics, minimum, median, and maximum values, a list of top values, and a distribution chart. Use this chart to get a better idea of how the values in the data are clustered.

    Field statistics for the machine.ram numeric field.

  6. Expand the geo.coordinates field.

    For geo fields, Discover provides the document statistics, examples, and a map of the coordinates.

    Field statistics for a geo field.

  7. Optional: Expand fields of other types, such as keyword or date fields, to see the statistics that Discover provides for them.

  8. Optional: To explore the field data in Lens or Maps, select Explore in Lens the icon to create a visualization of the data in Lens or Explore in Maps the Maps icon to explore the data in a map in the Actions column. These actions appear only if your role gives you access to visualizations and to maps, and Explore in Maps is available for geo fields only.

Result: Discover shows a row of statistics for each field in your data view, and you can expand a field to see its values in detail.