Objective 5.3

Core Certified User

The stats command

Objective 5.3 sits in Using Basic Transforming Commands, which carries 15% of the Core Certified User exam. The questions below are original, written from the official objective title above, and each explanation cites the Splunk page it rests on.

Objective title verbatim from the official objectives. Splunk exam page

A worked example

Shown solved, with the whole explanation open: this is what every question here carries.

5-3Using Basic Transforming Commands

A user needs an average and a count over a whole result set. Which command does Splunk document for aggregate statistics?

renameThe rename command changes what a column is called.
tableThe table command formats results without calculating anything.
fieldsThe fields command keeps or removes columns.
statsCorrect · your answerCorrect.

Correct.

Checked against help.splunk.com, August 2026

Concept

Aggregation answers a question about a set rather than about any event in it. The command that does it has to consume many rows and emit few, which is what makes it a transforming command.

Why D

Splunk states that this command calculates aggregate statistics, such as average, count and sum, over the results set, and compares it to SQL aggregation.

Source

Calculates aggregate statistics, such as average, count, and sum, over the results set. This is similar to SQL aggregation. If the stats command is used without a BY clause, only one row is returned, which is the aggregation over the entire incoming result set.

Splunk Docs: stats command, checked August 2026
#stats#transforming-commands

Now you: objective 5.3 questions

No account needed. The explanation opens when you answer.

Sample question 1 of 3

5-3Using Basic Transforming Commands

An analyst runs the stats command with no BY clause. How many rows does Splunk say come back?

Sample question 2 of 3

5-3Using Basic Transforming Commands

A team groups a stats calculation by the host field. How many rows does Splunk say the search returns?

Sample question 3 of 3

5-3Using Basic Transforming Commands

A user asks how the stats and eval commands differ. What does Splunk say each one does?

Full Core Certified User question bank coming

We’re writing the complete bank from the official objectives right now. Leave your email and we’ll tell you when it ships, nothing else, ever.

Read the sources

These are the official pages the questions above cite. Reading them is studying the objective from the primary source, which is what the explanations point you toward anyway.

More objectives in Using Basic Transforming Commands