# Hosts File - Get group name , only one item from group based on lookup **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [April 12, 2020, 6:04am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/hosts-file-get-group-name-only-one-item-from-group-based-on-lookup/32659 "2020-04-12T06:04:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Adam\_McGill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Adam\_McGill](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Adam_McGill)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 6:04am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/hosts-file-get-group-name-only-one-item-from-group-based-on-lookup/32659/1 "2020-04-12T06:04:42Z")
Is it possible to specify in a playbook hosts value to be a group item from hosts file? **example:** Hosts file contains: [groupone] comname1 comname2 comname3 in the playbook would like it to grab the group (groupone) but only apply the playbook routine to a name/value in that group and not all in that group. groupone | comname2 ---
**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:** [April 12, 2020, 8:27am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/hosts-file-get-group-name-only-one-item-from-group-based-on-lookup/32659/2 "2020-04-12T08:27:15Z")
> Is it possible to specify in a playbook hosts value to be a group item from hosts file? > > \*\_example:\_\* > > Hosts file contains: > > [groupone] > comname1 > comname2 > comname3 > > in the playbook would like it to grab the group (groupone) but only apply the playbook routine to a name/value in that > group and not all in that group. > > groupone | comname2 You get the members of this group with the variable groups['groupone']. Regards          Racke ---
**Author:** ![Adam\_McGill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Adam\_McGill](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Adam_McGill)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/hosts-file-get-group-name-only-one-item-from-group-based-on-lookup/32659/3 "2020-04-12T17:50:36Z")
Can i specify it on the hosts: line in the playbook is what i am trying to understand and point it to a value in the group. hosts: [‘groupone’][‘comname2’] groupone.comname2 gives me warning , could not match supplied host pattern. tried a few things like above, running into a syntax issue it seems or there isn’t a way to do it. Online documentation referencing a lot with referencing groups to combine or exclude. Which isn’t what i want, as i just want to reference a name/value in a group. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/hosts-file-get-group-name-only-one-item-from-group-based-on-lookup/32659/4 "2020-04-12T18:38:24Z")
> Can i specify it on the hosts: line in the playbook is what i am trying to understand and point it to a value in the group. > > hosts: > ['groupone']['comname2'] > groupone.comname2 > > gives me warning , could not match supplied host pattern. > > tried a few things like above, running into a syntax issue it seems or there isn't a way to do it. Online documentation > referencing a lot with referencing groups to combine or exclude. Which isn't what i want, > as i just want to reference a name/value in a group. There are a number of possibilities which comes to my mind: - create new group for comname2, which can be included into [groupone] through [groupone:children] - create dynamic group in the playbook with add\_host task - use --limit on the command line Regards         Racke ---
**Author:** ![Adam\_McGill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Adam\_McGill](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Adam_McGill)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/hosts-file-get-group-name-only-one-item-from-group-based-on-lookup/32659/5 "2020-04-12T20:09:00Z")
I took the route of using children groups. Too bad there wasn’t a way to pull a group and pick a value in that group passing to the Hosts: value in a playbook. Thanks for the assist/suggestions Stefan.