# can we pass a wildcard in a module's parameter's value ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 7, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984 "2020-10-07T21:15:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nic\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d9b06d/32.png) [@Nic\_H](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nic_H)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984/1 "2020-10-07T21:15:05Z")
hi, again a very simple use case in appearance but that is driving me nuts to realize with ansible, anyone ever done : tasks: - name: run a module any\_module: users: {{item}} # I want to loop first here state: absent name: “prefixed-\*” # basically anything that starts with ‘prefixed’ I tried : - as above just using the wildcard symbol , doesn’t work Things that comes to mind : - use startswith , but can’t find the syntax that would fit here - use another loop, but that tales me to the slope of nested\_loops , something I was NEVER able to make it working. any simple possibility to just use wildcard in a string ? thanks ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984/2 "2020-10-07T21:19:48Z")
I have no idea what your goal is, and without giving a concrete example with an actual module I cannot say. You want to loop some list variable, but limit to only values that start with prefixed- from that list? loop: “{{ something|select(‘match’, ‘prefixed-.\*’)|list }}” Or you could do: loop: "{{ something }}’ when: item.startswith(‘prefixed-’) ---
**Author:** ![Nic\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d9b06d/32.png) [@Nic\_H](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nic_H)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 9:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984/3 "2020-10-07T21:50:31Z")
thanks Matt, here is the real example , trying to remove multiple IAM policies from a bunch of users - name: assign policies to a given user iam\_policy: iam\_type: user iam\_name: “{{ item }}” state: absent policy\_name: “{{ starts\_with(‘database\_access-(ro|rw)’) }}” ## here I need to wildcard to any policy starting with that string . # policy\_name: “database\_access-(ro | rw)” # the other possibility is to find a switch like here so it can either do database\_access-ro OR database\_access\_rw , regex maybe ? loop: “{{ my\_users }}” As I already have one loop for users , I was trying to find a filter that I could directly pass in the ‘policy\_name’ parameter . ---
**Author:** ![Nic\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d9b06d/32.png) [@Nic\_H](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nic_H)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984/4 "2020-10-07T22:53:24Z")
I am not quite sure what {{something}} was supposed to be here ? ---
**Author:** ![Nic\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d9b06d/32.png) [@Nic\_H](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nic_H)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984/5 "2020-10-08T05:22:06Z")
been reading most of ansible docbut can’t find anything related to this, Can’t we just use regular expression for passing a string as a parameter ? It looks pretty simple case : a\_module: param1: something\_well\_defined param2: regex(something\_not\_so\_well\_defined.\*) ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984/6 "2020-10-08T06:37:54Z")
Parameters can be many things: strings, lists, dicts, boolenas etc. A generic "wild card" or regex therefore doesn't mean much. ---
**Author:** ![racke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/racke/32/4767_2.png) [@racke](https://forum.ansible.com/u/racke)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2020, 6:41am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/can-we-pass-a-wildcard-in-a-modules-parameters-value/33984/7 "2020-10-08T06:41:41Z")
> Parameters can be many things: strings, lists, dicts, boolenas etc. > A generic "wild card" or regex therefore doesn't mean much. The module needs to support the type, so in general a wildcard would only work if the module explicitly supports it. Regards         Racke