# How to write selected values to a file from a list of JSON arrays?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-write-selected-values-to-a-file-from-a-list-of-json-arrays/29109>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [November 24, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-write-selected-values-to-a-file-from-a-list-of-json-arrays/29109 "2018-11-24T19:10:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nick\_Ellson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Nick\_Ellson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nick_Ellson)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-write-selected-values-to-a-file-from-a-list-of-json-arrays/29109/1 "2018-11-24T19:10:19Z")

</div>

I have a task that I am scratching my head on, and my google foo is just getting some really basic examples of the COPY - CONTENT method of writing a file.

my variable returned from the URI module is data, which is a 4 variable JSON array. data.json.devices is the list I want to dump to a file to use as my future hosts file for cli config operations.

ok: [localhost] =\> {  
“msg”: [  
{  
“hostname”: “host1”,  
“id”: “0093253e”,  
“mgmtIP”: “10.10.10.1”  
},  
{  
“hostname”: “host2”,  
“id”: “00e75962”,  
“mgmtIP”: “10.10.10.8”  
},  
\<snip the other 378 entries in list\>

I’d like to spit this to a ./inventory/hosts file in a format that my playbook can then use in the next set of tasks. So just the “hostname” and “mgmtIP” variables written to a line.

How might that look?

Nick

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-write-selected-values-to-a-file-from-a-list-of-json-arrays/29109/2 "2018-11-24T19:18:09Z")

</div>

You can use the template or the copy module, the jinja template code is the same in both so i just show the copy module

- name: Create inventory  
&nbsp;&nbsp;copy:  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;content: |  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{% for i in data.json.devices %}  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{{ i.hostname }} ansible\_host={{ i.mgmtIP }}  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{% endfor %}  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;dest: inventory/hosts

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nick\_Ellson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Nick\_Ellson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nick_Ellson)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-write-selected-values-to-a-file-from-a-list-of-json-arrays/29109/3 "2018-11-24T19:25:15Z")

</div>

WOW!

That worked SLICK! And thank you for the much better example, that is very readable but I had a hell of a time finding anything like that on google.

OK, so you mentions jinja… I have heard this term and I hear it is something I need to learn as well… what might this look like using jinja, if you have time? (I have a working file now, thank you very much!)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-write-selected-values-to-a-file-from-a-list-of-json-arrays/29109/4 "2018-11-24T19:51:24Z")

</div>

The code in content: is Jinja so it look exactly like that.

Jinja is a template language for Python that Ansible is also using.  
{{ \<some\_variable }} is actually Jinja, and everything after a when: in Ansible is Jinja.

For more information about Jinja the documentation is here  
[http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/2.10/templates/](http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/2.10/templates/)