# Concatenate variable and string in looping with\_items **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [January 31, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112 "2020-01-31T17:17:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/1 "2020-01-31T17:17:00Z")
**Is it possible to concatenate like below?** - name: Retaining latest backup directory shell: find $(pwd)/_backup_ -type d -prune -exec ls -d {} ; |tail -1 register: import\_back\_up\_dir - name: Import dashboard grafana\_dashboard: state: present message: Updated by ansible overwrite: no path: “{{ item }}” with\_items: - “{{ import\_back\_up\_dir }} + SonarQube\_Dashboard.json” \>\>\>\>\>\> I am trying to concatenate like this however this is not working - could some one please suggest how can we achieve this concatenation. ---
**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:** [January 31, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/2 "2020-01-31T17:37:03Z")
> \*\_Is it possible to concatenate like below?\_\* > > ``` > \- name: Retaining latest backup directory > shell: find $\(pwd\)/\*backup\* \-type d \-prune \-exec ls \-d \{\} \\; |tail \-1 > register: import\_back\_up\_dir > > \- name: Import dashboard > grafana\_dashboard: > state: present > message: Updated by ansible > overwrite: no > path: "\{\{ item \}\}" > with\_items: > \- "\{\{ import\_back\_up\_dir \}\} \+ SonarQube\_Dashboard\.json" \_>>>>>> I am trying to concatenate like this however > > ``` > > this is not working - could some one please suggest how can we achieve this concatenation. Maybe you give us the objective of your task first ... Regards          Racke ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/3 "2020-01-31T18:04:45Z")
Thanks Stefan for looking into this. actually I want to import some grafana dashboards and I need to map this import\_back\_up\_dir (which I cannot hardcode) to appropriate json files. so I want to find a way to concatenate these. ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/4 "2020-01-31T18:26:45Z")
Replied ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/5 "2020-01-31T18:30:23Z")
Thanks Stefan for looking into this. actually I want to import some grafana dashboards and I need to map this import\_back\_up\_dir (which I cannot hardcode) to appropriate json files. so I want to find a way to concatenate these. ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/6 "2020-01-31T19:27:42Z")
Concatenate need to be done in inside of {{ }} and use tilde "{{ import\_back\_up\_dir ~ 'SonarQube\_Dashboard.json' }}" ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/7 "2020-02-01T05:54:04Z")
HI kai, thanks for the response. however I am trying to use inside looping with\_items it isn’t working. “msg”: "error : Can’t load json file [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '{\‘stderr\_lines\’: ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 5:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/8 "2020-02-01T05:55:44Z")
trying like this with\_items: - “{{ dashboards\_imported\_from\_latest\_backup ~ ‘/Artifactory\_Monitoring.json’ }}” ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 8:12am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/9 "2020-02-01T08:12:27Z")
This will only be one item so you don't need to use with\_items. Anyway, since you only need the text it should be like this   with\_items:     - "{{ dashboards\_imported\_from\_latest\_backup}}/Artifactory\_Monitoring.json" ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 4:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/10 "2020-02-03T04:52:41Z")
Thanks Kai. No actually this is not going to be one item only as it should be done for almost 7-8 json files. so i think the below trick you shown I am going to try that right now and see if that works forme. Thanks again , cheers! ---
**Author:** ![Vishal\_Bobade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@Vishal\_Bobade](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Vishal_Bobade)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 5:24am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/concatenate-variable-and-string-in-looping-with-items/32112/11 "2020-02-03T05:24:52Z")
I tried the above what Kai suggested however that is not working and unable to get the particular json for me from the specific backup dir. However I could find a way to get this done as shown below - this way we can get the output from the variable line by line. with\_items: - “{{ dashboards\_imported\_from\_latest\_backup.stdout\_lines[2] }}” - “{{ dashboards\_imported\_from\_latest\_backup.stdout\_lines[3] }}” - “{{ dashboards\_imported\_from\_latest\_backup.stdout\_lines[4] }}”