# How to split value from list **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 6, 2020, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328 "2020-07-06T11:44:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jenisha\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Jenisha\_T](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jenisha_T)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2020, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/1 "2020-07-06T11:44:18Z")
Hi Could you pls help me with the splitting value from the list. I need to extract first value **anil** before (‘’:') **grep\_atm.stdout\_lines** output below ok: [localhost] =\> { “msg”: " **anil** ❌500:500:Anil:/home/anil:/bin/bash " } I tried, - set\_fact: user\_name: “{{ grep\_atm.stdout\_lines }}” register: user\_name.split(‘:’)[0] - debug: var: user\_name.split(‘:’)[0] ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/2 "2020-07-06T11:49:02Z")
Based on your data, look at this module: [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/getent\_module.html](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/getent_module.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jenisha\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Jenisha\_T](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jenisha_T)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/3 "2020-07-06T12:46:54Z")
It supports only for the database. My output in register ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2020, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/4 "2020-07-06T13:04:55Z")
you should either use set\_fact, or register. Both doesn't make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Srinivas\_Naram](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Srinivas\_Naram](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Srinivas_Naram)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/5 "2020-07-06T13:32:14Z")
Hello Jenisha, Assuming that you are getting this value from /etc/passwd., try to change you command tail -1 /etc/passwd | awk ‘{split($0,a,“:”); print a[1]}’ ---
**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:** [July 6, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/6 "2020-07-06T14:20:32Z")
> Hello Jenisha, > > Assuming that you are getting this value from /etc/passwd., try to change you command > > tail -1 /etc/passwd | awk '{split($0,a,":"); print a[1]}' cut -d : -f 1 is more concise and readable than your awk command. Otherwise I would really like to know why Jenisha resorts to reading the password file. Regards          racke ---
**Author:** ![vbotka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/vbotka/32/359_2.png) [@vbotka](https://forum.ansible.com/u/vbotka)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/7 "2020-07-06T14:57:17Z")
user\_name: "{{ my\_string.split(':')[0] }}" This is the correct expression, given the data is in the variable "my\_string", wherever it might come from. ---
**Author:** ![Jenisha\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Jenisha\_T](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jenisha_T)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 4:18am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/8 "2020-07-07T04:18:11Z")
Hi Team I get below error when I use split directly, The error was: ‘list object’ has no attribute ‘split’ How to unlist in ansible ---
**Author:** ![Jenisha\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Jenisha\_T](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jenisha_T)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 5:11am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/9 "2020-07-07T05:11:11Z")
In my case cut doesn’t work. I m searching for a particular user from a password. $ grep anil /etc/passwd ---
**Author:** ![Karl\_Auer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cc9497/32.png) [@Karl\_Auer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Karl_Auer)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/10 "2020-07-07T05:22:24Z")
so what’s wrong with: USR=“jenisha” FOUND=`grep $USR /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1` if [-z “$FOUND”] ; then echo “No such user: $USR” else # do whatever… fi ? Regards, K. ---
**Author:** ![Srinivas\_Naram](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Srinivas\_Naram](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Srinivas_Naram)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 5:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/11 "2020-07-07T05:43:17Z")
Did you try this ? user\_name: “{{ my\_string[0].split(‘:’)[0] }}” ---
**Author:** ![Jenisha\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Jenisha\_T](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jenisha_T)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 5:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/12 "2020-07-07T05:52:37Z")
Thank you, everyone, grep followed by cut gave me desired output ---
**Author:** ![Jenisha\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Jenisha\_T](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jenisha_T)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 5:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/13 "2020-07-07T05:55:59Z")
This logic works. Thankyou ---
**Author:** ![Srinivas\_Naram](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Srinivas\_Naram](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Srinivas_Naram)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 6:31am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-split-value-from-list/33328/14 "2020-07-07T06:31:09Z")
How do we incorporate if-else in set\_fact ?