If you just want a simple calculation, you can specify the aggregation without any other arguments. For example:

... | stats sum(bytes)

This search summarizes the bytes for all of the incoming results. One row is returned with one column. The name of the column is the name of the aggregation. For example:

This example takes the incoming result set and calculates the sum of the bytes field and groups the sums by the values in the host field.

... | stats sum(bytes) BY host

The results contain as many rows as there are distinct host values. There are two columns returned: host and sum(bytes). If you don't specify a name for the results using the `AS <field> syntax, then the names of the columns are the name of the <by-clause> field and the name of the aggregation.

If there are two distinct hosts, the results are returned as a table similar to this:

You can also specify more than one aggregation and <by-clause> with the stats command. You can rename the output fields using the AS <field> clause. For example:

...| stats sum(bytes) AS 'Sum of bytes', avg(bytes) AS Average BY host, sourcetype

This search organizes the incoming search results into groups based on the combination of host and sourcetype. It returns the sum of the bytes in the Sum of bytes field and the average bytes in the Average field for each group. If there are two distinct hosts and two distinct sourcetypes, the search will produce results similar to this:

This example counts the values in the action field and organized the results into 30 minute time spans. When you use the span argument, the field you use in the <by-clause> must be either the _time field, or another field with values in UNIX time. For example:

...| stats count(action) AS count BY _time span=30m