How can i get the value from a dict of dicts when the key is supplied by a variable ?

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1

I have prepared a YAML file which arrange some constant values as dictionary of dictionaries:

values:
key1:
val1: 1.1
val2:
- 1.2.1
- 1.2.2
val3:
- 1.3.1
- 1.3.2
val4:
- 1.4.1
- 1.4.2
key2:
val1: 2.1
val2:
- 2.2.1
val3:
- 2.3.1
val4:
- 2.4.1

The values for first level of keys (key1,key2) will be provided to the playbook as variable ‘key’ and i am trying to use the dictionary values corresponding to the dictionary i get from this ‘key’. But i am unable to reference this dict within the playbook. I have tried some of these ways:

  • debug: msg=“value - {{values.{{key}}}.val1}”

  • debug: msg=“value - {{values[{{key}}]}}”

  • debug: msg=“value - {{values[{{key}}][val1]}}”

But nothing works. How can i refer to some keys in a dictionary via variables ?
And also, can someone guide me to a good resource which can educate me with the advanced syntax and usage of both YAML and Jinja2 ? I am sick of this hit and trial but couldn’t find a detailed resource either.

2

The values for first level of keys (key1,key2) will be provided to the
playbook as variable 'key' and i am trying to use the dictionary values
corresponding to the dictionary i get from this 'key'. But i am unable to
reference this dict within the playbook. I have tried some of these ways:

All of those include a common misunderstanding: The curly braces tell
Ansible "start (and stop) Jinja parsing", they don't delimit variables.
Once you're parsing Jinja, you don't need to start again in the middle.

I think you want something like

  - debug: msg="value - {{values[key]['val1']}}"

"values" and "key" aren't quoted, becuase they're variables. "val1" is,
because it's a literal string.

And also, can someone guide me to a good resource which can educate me
with the advanced syntax and usage of both YAML and Jinja2 ? I am sick
of this hit and trial but couldn't find a detailed resource either.

Others may have better ideas here, but I often use
http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_filters.html and
http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/dev/templates/ for Jinja help.

                                      -Josh (jbs@care.com)

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3

Thanks. That worked perfectly fine.