# Explore common components

Explore spans shares four core components with the rest of Explore—the same query builder, side bar of fields, count chart, and results table render across the **Spans**, **Traces**, and **Flows** tabs and across other Explore surfaces like Explore Logs. Understanding these components helps you move faster through any investigation, regardless of which tab or data type you're working with.

## At a glance

| Component      | What it does                                                                                                                   | Detailed document                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Result table   | Lists spans or traces for the active query; supports row, cell, and key actions.                                               | [Spans, Traces, and Flows](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/tables-and-flows/index.md)                                                                                                         |
| Query builder  | No-code filters, aggregations, and groupings with Lucene and DataPrime parity.                                                 | [Query builder for spans](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/query-builder-for-spans/index.md) · [Query builder](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/query_builder/index.md) |
| Graphs         | Count Spans over time chart above the results table, with hover, zoom, and drilldown actions.                                  | [Visualize](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/visualize/index.md)                                                                                                                                     |
| Fields         | Side-bar filters grouped by OpenTelemetry semantic convention.                                                                 | [Fields for spans](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/fields-for-spans/index.md)                                                                                                                 |
| Overview tab   | Aggregated view of the active query alongside the Spans, Traces, and Flows tabs — top contributors, distributions, and charts. | [Overview tab for spans](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/overview-tab/index.md)                                                                                                               |
| Signals tab    | Rate, Errors, and Duration for the active query, as an Outliers overlay chart or three side-by-side RED metrics charts.        | [Signals tab](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/signals/index.md)                                                                                                                               |
| Highlights tab | Field-by-field breakdown of the matching spans, with optional period-over-period comparison.                                   | [Highlights tab](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/highlights-tab/index.md)                                                                                                                     |

## Result table

The Result table lists the rows that match your current query. Each row represents a single span in the **Spans** tab or a single trace in the **Traces** tab. Columns are tab-specific and can be added, removed, and reordered through **Manage columns**.

Row, cell, and key actions include:

- **Include in query** — add the field-value pair as an inclusion filter.
- **Exclude from query** — add the field-value pair as an exclusion filter.
- **Copy value** — copy the value to the clipboard.
- **Copy full path** — copy the full field path, including parent keys.
- **Add as a column** — add the field as a new column in the table.
- **Show the graph for the key** — open a time-series chart of the key.
- **Add as grouping** — group results by the field.

Sort any column ascending or descending by selecting its header—useful for sorting by duration or error count. Use **Export** to save the result set as JSON or CSV. Select a row to open the drilldown drawer.

In the **Traces** tab, the table also surfaces a trace duration breakdown by service for each row—for example, *Cumulative span duration: 211.17ms* shows the sum of all span durations in the trace.

For the full list of columns, actions, and export behavior in the Spans and Traces tabs, see [Spans, Traces, and Flows](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/tables-and-flows/index.md). For the logs equivalent, see [Logs grid](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/logs/grid/index.md).

## Query builder

The query builder is a no-code interface for filters, aggregations, and groupings. In Explore spans it adds tracing-specific controls:

- Span duration filter (ms or percentile). Trace duration is not currently supported.
- Error toggles for spans and traces.
- **Order by**, **Limit**, and **Having** for grouped results.

Tip

You can switch between **Query builder**, **Lucene**, and **DataPrime** at any time. DataPrime is supported only in the **Spans** tab. Builder-to-DataPrime conversion is always supported; Coralogix confirms before converting a complex DataPrime query back to the builder.

For span-specific filters, see [Query builder for spans](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/query-builder-for-spans/index.md). For the full reference of shared builder primitives, see [Query builder](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/query_builder/index.md).

## Graphs

A **Count Spans over time** chart sits above the results table and updates with your active query and time range. Each bar shows the number of spans in a time bucket, with the legend on the right summarizing the total count for the selected window. Use the chart to spot volume trends before drilling into individual spans.

Hover any bar to inspect the count for that bucket, drag across a time window to zoom, or select a data point to include or exclude the value in the query and to open the drilldown drawer on a representative span.

For the chart configuration shared across Explore (chart types, scale, time bucket, legend, drag-to-zoom), see [Visualize](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/visualize/index.md).

## Fields

The side bar on the left lists span fields and tags, grouped by OpenTelemetry semantic convention into named sections (HTTP, Database, Messaging, Infrastructure, and more) under a Core block of common identifiers (Service, Application, Subsystem, Operation, Span kind). Field filters stay in sync with the query builder—changes in either place propagate to the other.

For the full section list, per-field actions, and sorting, see [Fields for spans](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/fields-for-spans/index.md). For the equivalent component shared across Explore, see [Fields](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/fields/index.md).

## Next steps

Render aggregated span queries as sortable tables or charts in the [Overview tab](https://coralogix.com/docs/user-guides/data_exploration/spans/overview-tab/index.md).