# failed\_when sequence logic **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 1, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/failed-when-sequence-logic/18655 "2015-07-01T18:31:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tom\_Paine1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@Tom\_Paine1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tom_Paine1)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/failed-when-sequence-logic/18655/1 "2015-07-01T18:31:14Z")
Having trouble understanding if there’s a bug in failed\_when, or my understanding is incorrect - a _false_ and a _true_ are OR’ing in a YAML sequence to _false_: Fails (failed when evals to true): ` failed\_when: - ‘“300 OK” not in command\_result.stderr’ ` Passes (failed when evals to false): ` failed\_when: - command\_result.rc != 0 ` Both together pass (failed when evals to false): ` failed\_when: - ‘“300 OK” not in command\_result.stderr’ - command\_result.rc != 0 ` Spent an hour going back a forth trying to find a syntax error. failed\_when passes the task when it evaluates to false, I’ve seen a post from Michael DeHaan saying sequences are treated like ORs. What am I not seeing? ---
**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:** [July 1, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/failed-when-sequence-logic/18655/2 "2015-07-01T18:45:17Z")
When you give when, changed\_when or failed\_when a list, the items are ANDed, not ORed. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Paine1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@Tom\_Paine1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tom_Paine1)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/failed-when-sequence-logic/18655/3 "2015-07-01T18:46:55Z")
Simplified, I’ve tried: failed\_when: - true - false evals to false. Surely a bug? This is the post where sequences are said to evaluate as OR [https://groups.google.com/d/msg/ansible-project/cIaQTmY3ZLE/c5w8rlmdHWIJ](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/ansible-project/cIaQTmY3ZLE/c5w8rlmdHWIJ) ---
**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:** [July 1, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/failed-when-sequence-logic/18655/4 "2015-07-01T18:50:14Z")
No, pretty sure that is correct, here is the output from the operation of ‘True and False’ in Python: In [1]: True and False Out[1]: False Like I said, they are ANDed not ORed. If you want to use an or, you are going to have to write it out such as: failed\_when: true or false ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Paine1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@Tom\_Paine1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tom_Paine1)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/failed-when-sequence-logic/18655/5 "2015-07-01T19:02:43Z")
Not convinced it’s good syntax, for a failure\_when I’d expect an OR. But ok. My issue is that I now I want to OR a bunch of multiline statements: ` failed\_when: - > “long string with characters that need escaping” over many $%^&\* lines - > and another long line - etc - etc ` How to OR over multiline sequences? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Paine1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@Tom\_Paine1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tom_Paine1)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/failed-when-sequence-logic/18655/6 "2015-07-01T19:20:24Z")
Ok, got it. ` failed\_when: \> “foo bar” not in x or “baz bar” not in y ` etc. Thanks for the help Matt. Hottest July day on record with no air-con wasn’t helping either 🙂