topic Re: DQL handling tag values in DQL

Handle Tag Values in Dynatrace Query Language (DQL)

paolo_fumanelli — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:55:31 GMT

Summary: This article demonstrates how to handle tag values in DQL queries, including syntax examples and practical use cases for filtering and grouping data in Dynatrace dashboards.

Hi, I defined some tags in the key:value format.

Now I'd like to use tag values in DQL.

For example, I defined the tag "myTag" for which its value is a substring of the webservice namespace. Now I'd like to summarize service count by tag value. Below DQL is used for extraction, but then how can I summarize by tag value?

fetch dt.entity.service
| fieldsAdd runs_on, tags
| filter matchesValue(tags, "myTag")

If I add
| summarize count(), by:{tags}

I found no way to use tag value.

thanks
Paolo

Re: DQL handling tag values

ChadTurner — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:04:06 GMT

@paolo_fumanelli have you had any luck figuring out the tags with DQL?

Re: DQL handling tag values

paolo_fumanelli — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 14:46:13 GMT

Hi Chad,

after several attempts I tried this. I wanted to group and count websphere services by a specific tag

fetch dt.entity.service
| fieldsAdd softwareTechnologies, tags
| filter contains(toString(softwareTechnologies), "IBM_WEBSPHERE_APPLICATION_SERVER")
| filter contains(toString(tags), "myTag")
| summarize count(), by:{(tags)}
| sort `count()` desc

The result is not exactly the one I wanted because if a service has got more that 1 tag, not only "myTag" will be used to produce the grouping but also the other ones.

But, still, it's one step further 🙂

Of course if you have any hint, more than welcome!

Re: DQL handling tag values

Tiit_Hallas — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 10:57:32 GMT

Your current solution does not take into account a situation, where your defined tag is a substring of a larger tag. E.g. you're looking for a tag "dce", then your query would match things tagged with "abcde" as well.

You could consider the following query, maybe this helps:

fetch dt.entity.service | fieldsAdd softwareTechnologies, tags | filter matchesValue(tags, "my_tag")

Re: DQL handling tag values

paolo_fumanelli — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 12:11:15 GMT

Hi, thanks for hint. I tried your solution at the beginning but it does work if the tag is not in the key:value format.

Since in my case "myTag" key can assume several different values, if I use matchesValue(tags, "myTag") I wont' get any result.

It will provide results only by specifiying also the value, like

| filter matchesValue(tags, "myTag:myTagValue")

Re: DQL handling tag values

AmitChiba — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 12:53:33 GMT

Hi,

Since the "tags" is essentially an array with multiple values, you would need to do an "expand" on that field. the matchesValue means that the value has to be exactly the same. If your tags contains a key:value pair, then you can also use a "contains"

fetch dt.entity.service
| fieldsAdd softwareTechnologies, tags
| expand tags
| filter contains(tags, "mytag")

Re: DQL handling tag values

Tiit_Hallas — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 13:12:52 GMT

ah, clear. In that case it makes sense to use contains indeed. and the full solution for you might be something like this:

fetch dt.entity.service | fieldsAdd softwareTechnologies, tags | filter contains(toString(softwareTechnologies), "IBM_WEBSPHERE_APPLICATION_SERVER") | expand tags | filter contains(toString(tags), "<my_tag>:") // mind the colon at the end | parse tags, "ld:key ':' ld:tag_value" | summarize count(), by: {tag_value}

Re: DQL handling tag values

paolo_fumanelli — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 13:30:01 GMT

@AmitChiba @Tiit_Hallas you were great!

Both your solutions work very well for my case.

Thanks a lot!

Paolo

Re: DQL handling tag values

Parkash_Jha_1 — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 12:30:50 GMT

Hi @Tiit_Hallas ,

Thanks for the DQL which you shared.
Could you please help me on fixing this problem where I am working on setting up segment using tags present on hosts.

Environment: prod/non-prod/uat/test/stage

Application Name: Atlas, cardwizard etc

I was using below DQL to filter the tags of application:<application name> which is working fine for me.

Dql:

fetch dt.entity.host

| fields tags

| expand tags

| filter contains(toString(tags),"application:")

| parse tags, "ld:key ':' ld:ApplicationName"

| fields ApplicationName

| dedup ApplicationName

However, I also want to add one more field/column which can filter the environment from the tags such as environment:<env_name>

The tags applied on hosts are listed below where I can filter application name but not able to filter environment prod in separate column

Tags = [

"environment:prod",

"iis app pool:DefaultAppPool",

"iis app pool:MiserRiskAssessment",

"application:atlas"

]

application names are successfully filtered however environment I am not getting in another field.

Re: DQL handling tag values

paolo_fumanelli — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 12:53:46 GMT

If you want to also have environment in another column, you must add them again. Example:

This will create a new column with environment