# indexing variable list using a variable **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [September 9, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/indexing-variable-list-using-a-variable/19218 "2015-09-09T22:10:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trond\_Hindenes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/96bed5/32.png) [@Trond\_Hindenes](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Trond_Hindenes)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/indexing-variable-list-using-a-variable/19218/1 "2015-09-09T22:10:22Z")
Hi guys, I’m testing out some variable logic here, would really appreciate some help. I have the following content in one of my vars\_files: ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/indexing-variable-list-using-a-variable/19218/2 "2015-09-09T22:12:40Z")
set\_fact: mybackend="{{hostvars[inventory\_hostname]['db'][varwithbackendnumber]}}" ---
**Author:** ![Trond\_Hindenes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/96bed5/32.png) [@Trond\_Hindenes](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Trond_Hindenes)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/indexing-variable-list-using-a-variable/19218/3 "2015-09-09T22:25:14Z")
THanks Brian. I can’t seem to get this working. I can access the individual items using indexing (this works: - set\_fact: mybackend=“{{ db[0] }}” ) But I can’t for the life of me figure out how to access by “item name” (or if that’s even a valid thing in yaml). I can obviously redo the way I format the contents of my variable file, but I can’t seem to strike gold. Struggling to find a good example of this in the docs/examples. ---
**Author:** ![Trond\_Hindenes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/96bed5/32.png) [@Trond\_Hindenes](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Trond_Hindenes)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/indexing-variable-list-using-a-variable/19218/4 "2015-09-09T22:38:59Z")
hm, maybe I’d be better off splitting the different location vars into separate files, and then use ```auto with_first_found ``` ```auto I could then loop over group_names until the node found a valid variable file. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Trond\_Hindenes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/96bed5/32.png) [@Trond\_Hindenes](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Trond_Hindenes)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/indexing-variable-list-using-a-variable/19218/5 "2015-09-09T22:59:35Z")
Just for reference, this is what I ended up doing: 1. in my play, I created separate vars files for each site, these correspond to the current host’s group membership: - include\_vars: “{{ item }}” with\_first\_found: - “db\_{{ autogroup2 }}.yml” 1. in each var file I used the following structure: ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/indexing-variable-list-using-a-variable/19218/6 "2015-09-10T13:15:22Z")
i was going to say, you cannot reference lists by name so db:   - first:       stuff: lasdjkf       la: dida   - second:       stuff: aslkdfjsk       la: lala is a list, if you wanted to reference by name you need to make it a hash/dictionary so you can only get first through db[0]. db:   first:       stuff: lasdjkf       la: dida   second:       stuff: aslkdfjsk       la: lala now you can do db['first']