# Create variable as dict using jinja2 within playbook **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 21, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565 "2014-10-21T03:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anth\_Courtney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Anth\_Courtney](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anth_Courtney)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/1 "2014-10-21T03:55:28Z")
Hello there, Is it possible to create a variable which is a dict using jinja2 within a playbook? For example, I have the following (contrived) playbook, within which I am trying to create a ‘host\_info’ dict which I can then access from a task: ---
**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/2 "2014-10-23T16:29:38Z")
Hi Anth, Unfortunately, this cannot be done the way you’re trying it. You’re creating YAML after the YAML structure is already parsed, so the variable is just storing it as a string. Instead of doing this, I would recommend using the add\_host module ([http://docs.ansible.com/add\_host\_module.html](http://docs.ansible.com/add_host_module.html)), which can also accept any additional variables you may wish to associate with that host entry. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Jacobs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Steve\_Jacobs](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Steve_Jacobs)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/3 "2015-04-09T15:17:54Z")
I realize this is an old thread, but why does this not work? It works as expected for arrays… For instance see this blog post: [http://adamj.eu/tech/2014/10/02/merging-groups-and-hostvars-in-ansible-variables/](http://adamj.eu/tech/2014/10/02/merging-groups-and-hostvars-in-ansible-variables/) That works just fine, but if you try to modify this to output an array of dictionaries, or similar, ansible doesn’t interpret the result correctly. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Jacobs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Steve\_Jacobs](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Steve_Jacobs)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/4 "2015-04-09T15:34:12Z")
Why is it possible to do with an array though? - hosts: all connection: local gather\_facts: false tasks: - set\_fact: myvar: | {% set comma = joiner(“,”) %} [{% for item in [‘honey’, ‘bunch’] -%} {{ comma() }}“monkey” {%- endfor %}] - debug: var=myvar PLAY [all] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK: [set\_fact] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [127.0.0.1] TASK: [debug var=myvar] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [127.0.0.1] =\> { “var”: { “myvar”: [ “monkey”, “monkey” ] } } PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 127.0.0.1 : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 But: - hosts: all connection: local gather\_facts: false tasks: - set\_fact: myvar: | {% set comma = joiner(“,”) %} [{% for item in [‘honey’, ‘bunch’] -%} {{ comma() }}{ monkey: banana } {%- endfor %}] - debug: var=myvar Produces: TASK: [debug var=myvar] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [127.0.0.1] =\> { “var”: { “myvar”: “[{ monkey: banana },{ monkey: banana }]” } } And: - hosts: all connection: local gather\_facts: false tasks: - set\_fact: myvar: | {{ “\n” }} {%- for item in [‘honey’, ‘bunch’] -%} - { monkey: banana } {% endfor %} - debug: var=myvar TASK: [debug var=myvar] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [127.0.0.1] =\> { “var”: { “myvar”: “\n- { monkey: banana }\n- { monkey: banana }\n” } } Why does one way work and the other way fail? ---
**Author:** ![Anand\_Buddhdev2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Anand\_Buddhdev2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anand_Buddhdev2)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/5 "2015-04-09T22:37:12Z")
I would also like to know this. I have previously tried to template playbooks using Jinja2, without success. I would like to ask again: wouldn’t it be super if Ansible’s playbooks were _first_ run through Jinja2, so that we could use all of Jinja’s features to customise some parts of playbooks? Anand ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 11:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/6 "2015-04-09T23:13:45Z")
> wouldn't it be super if Ansible's playbooks were \*first\* run through Jinja2, so that > we could use all of Jinja's features to customise some parts of playbooks? No. short answer: it defeats the simplicity goal ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Jacobs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Steve\_Jacobs](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Steve_Jacobs)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 11:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/7 "2015-04-09T23:15:57Z")
Sure I understand why not to do this. My question is why does one way work (arrays) and the other way (dicts) not work. Simple question, I can’t find an answer to it. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/8 "2015-04-09T23:16:42Z")
The answer is that neither returns what you think it does, both return a string, the issue is that with some fields they expect a string or array or array in string (which then they split with , to get a real array). Fields that expect dicts do not do any magic nor expect strings at any point. ---
**Author:** ![Nehal\_J\_Wani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9a28c/32.png) [@Nehal\_J\_Wani](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nehal_J_Wani)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/create-variable-as-dict-using-jinja2-within-playbook/16565/9 "2017-02-11T19:34:39Z")
I know this is 2 year old thread, but I bumped into this today and was able to create a dictionary. Something like this: /tmp $ cat example.yml - hosts: 127.0.0.1 vars: app\_servers: 5 ipaddress\_base: “192.168.0” rmi\_portbase: 10000 host\_info: | {% set res = -%} {%- for number in range(1,app\_servers + 1) -%} {% set ignored = res.extend([{ ‘hostname’: ‘app’ + number|string, ‘ipaddress’: ipaddress\_base + ‘.’ + number|string, ‘rmi\_port’: rmi\_portbase|int + ( number \* 10) }]) -%} {%- endfor %} {{ res }} tasks: - debug: var=host\_info /tmp $ ansible-playbook example.yml [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available PLAY [127.0.0.1] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK [setup] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [127.0.0.1] TASK [debug] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [127.0.0.1] =\> { “host\_info”: [ { “hostname”: “app1”, “ipaddress”: “192.168.0.1”, “rmi\_port”: 10010 }, { “hostname”: “app2”, “ipaddress”: “192.168.0.2”, “rmi\_port”: 10020 }, { “hostname”: “app3”, “ipaddress”: “192.168.0.3”, “rmi\_port”: 10030 }, { “hostname”: “app4”, “ipaddress”: “192.168.0.4”, “rmi\_port”: 10040 }, { “hostname”: “app5”, “ipaddress”: “192.168.0.5”, “rmi\_port”: 10050 } ] } PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 127.0.0.1 : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0