# how to convert textarea in ansible tower survey into a list of dictionary in playbook

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-convert-textarea-in-ansible-tower-survey-into-a-list-of-dictionary-in-playbook/29725>\
**Category:** Ansible Developer\
**Created:** [February 20, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-convert-textarea-in-ansible-tower-survey-into-a-list-of-dictionary-in-playbook/29725 "2019-02-20T22:42:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Xiangli\_Li](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/7feea3/32.png) [@Xiangli\_Li](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Xiangli_Li)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-convert-textarea-in-ansible-tower-survey-into-a-list-of-dictionary-in-playbook/29725/1 "2019-02-20T22:42:19Z")

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Hello,  
I am new to ansible tower, and I am trying to migrate my playbooks into ansible tower environment.  
in my playbook, I have variable like  
db\_list:

- { dbid: 1, dbname: abc}
- { dbid: 2, dbname: xyz}

in tower survey, I can put similar info as textarea in survey  
dbid: 1, dbname: abc  
dbid: 2, dbname: xyz

How can I convert my textarea data into a list of dictionary ? I can’t find any suitable jinj2 filter for conversion, below playbook failed as it complains dbname is undefined.

> `<br> - name: display textaera <br> debug: <br> msg: "{{item.dbname}}" <br> with_items: "{{var_textarea.splitlines() }}" <br>`  
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> `<br><br><br>`  
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> `<br>any help is appreciated ! <br>`  
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thanks  
Xiangli

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tchia04](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/fbc32d/32.png) [@Tchia04](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tchia04)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 6:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-convert-textarea-in-ansible-tower-survey-into-a-list-of-dictionary-in-playbook/29725/2 "2019-03-01T06:43:10Z")

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This is not the correct place to ask tower questions.

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**Author:** ![acozine1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@acozine1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/acozine1)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-convert-textarea-in-ansible-tower-survey-into-a-list-of-dictionary-in-playbook/29725/3 "2019-03-01T14:44:47Z")

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As a Tower customer, you can access Red Hat support for help: [https://access.redhat.com/products/ansible-tower-red-hat/](https://access.redhat.com/products/ansible-tower-red-hat/)