Microsoft LogParser 2.2 Tutorial VI

Click here to see part V.

We have used logparser now in a variety of ways. We have used it to query logs and output them into different formats. We have used the datagrid and console which is default in logparser as well as .tpl files to get a nicely formatted html document. We also have used logparser from within powershell. Using the Interop (Interop.MSUtil.dll) assembly for logparser (TlbImp.exe LogParser.dll /out:Interop.MSUtil.dll) you can of course also call logparser from any .NET language. I wanted to start by showing a basic example on how this can be called from C#. In future guides, I will provide an easy to use library to call logparser from C#. Let's get to the examples then:

using IISW3CInputFormat = Interop.MSUtil.COMIISW3CInputContextClassClass;
using Interop.MSUtil;

       public ILogRecordset Excecute(string queryName)
       {
           //iis errors by hr. 
           string query = "SELECT TO_LOCALTIME(QUANTIZE(TO_TIMESTAMP(date, time),3600)), COUNT(*) AS Error_Frequency FROM c:\logs\mylog.log WHERE sc-status >= 400 GROUP BY TO_LOCALTIME(QUANTIZE(TO_TIMESTAMP(date, time),3600)) ORDER BY TO_LOCALTIME(QUANTIZE(TO_TIMESTAMP(date, time),3600)) ASC";

           LogQueryClass logQuery = new LogQueryClassClass();
           IISW3CInputFormat oIISW3CInputFormat = new IISW3CInputFormat();
           return logQuery.Execute(query, oIISW3CInputFormat);
           //iterate through the ILogRecordSet so that you can work with each row
       }

Another example against the registry:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using LogQuery = Interop.MSUtil.LogQueryClass;
using RegistryInputFormat = Interop.MSUtil.COMRegistryInputContextClass;
using RegRecordSet = Interop.MSUtil.ILogRecordset;

namespace ConsoleApplicationTest
{
   class Program
   {
       static void Main(string[] args)
       {
           {
               RegRecordSet rs = null;
               try
               {
                   LogQuery logQuery = new LogQuery();
                   RegistryInputFormat registryFormat = new RegistryInputFormat();
                   string query = @"SELECT Path from \HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft where
                       Value='Microsoft'";
                   rs = logQuery.Execute(query, registryFormat);
                   for (; !rs.atEnd(); rs.moveNext())
                       Console.WriteLine(rs.getRecord().toNativeString(", "));
               }
               finally
               {
                   rs.close();
               }
           }
       }
   }
}

As you can see, using logparser from C# is very easy. The nicer apps would not hardcode a query but allow you to select a .sql file and a .log file to look at. I will show an example on how to do that next week as well as a core library which can be re-used for logparser.