toarray

Use the toarray function in APL to convert a dynamic-typed input—such as a bag, property bag, or JSON array—into a regular array. This is helpful when you want to process the elements individually with array functions like array_length, array_index_of, or mv-expand.

You typically use toarray when working with semi-structured data, especially after parsing JSON from log fields or external sources. It lets you access and manipulate nested collections using standard array operations.

​

For users of other query languages

If you come from other query languages, this section explains how to adjust your existing queries to achieve the same results in APL.

​

Usage

​

Syntax

toarray(value)

​

Parameters

​

Returns

An array containing the elements of the dynamic input. If the input is already an array, the result is identical. If the input is a property bag, it returns an array of values. If the input is not coercible to an array, the result is an empty array.

​

Example

You want to convert a string to an array because you want to pass the result to a function that accepts arrays, such as array_concat.

Query

['otel-demo-traces']
| extend service_list = toarray('123')
| extend json_list = parse_json('["frontend", "cartservice", "checkoutservice"]')
| extend combined_list = array_concat(service_list, json_list)
| project _time, combined_list

Run in Playground

Output

​

List of related functions

• array_length: Returns the number of elements in an array. Useful before applying array_extract.
• array_index_of: Finds the position of an element in an array, which can help set the startIndex for array_extract.
• pack_array: Use this to combine scalar values into an array. Use pack_array when you don’t need named keys and want positional data instead.
• bag_keys: Returns the list of keys in a dynamic dictionary. Use this to inspect or filter contents created by pack_dictionary.
• bag_pack: Expands a dictionary into multiple columns. Use it to revert the packing performed by pack_dictionary.