# Is it possible to natively convert a 3 letter country code to a 2 letter one (e.g. USA -\> US) **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 30, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201 "2018-07-30T19:46:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sabrina\_Lautier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sabrina\_Lautier](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sabrina_Lautier)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/1 "2018-07-30T19:46:18Z")
Hi everyone, I’m migrating most of my code from python 2.7 to ansible and would like to know if there’s a way to natively convert a 3 letter country code to 2 letter one. It was really easy to do in python: ` from iso3166 import countries country\_code\_2l = countries.get(country\_code\_3l).alpha2 ` , but can’t find a way to do it with ansible. Format does not work as the correlation table is normalized. I can of course create a python module that does this, but would like to avoid it if such a feature already exists. Best regards, Sabrina ---
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 8:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/2 "2018-07-30T20:36:55Z")
I don't think something like that exist, but you could do this {{ lookup('pipe', 'python -c "from iso3166 import countries; print countries.get(\"NOR\").alpha2"') }} Or create a filter plugin country\_code\_3to2.py ---
**Author:** ![Sabrina\_Lautier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sabrina\_Lautier](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sabrina_Lautier)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 9:11am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/3 "2018-07-31T09:11:29Z")
Thanks a lot Kai, I haven’t thought about this. The command successfully run as root, in the shell command line: ` # python -c “from iso3166 import countries; print countries.get(‘USA’).alpha2” US ` So, it looks like we’re definitively on the right tracks, but I can’t managed to pass the variable``` to the function countries.get(), even hard coded (see below):` ` # Convert the 3 letter country code to 2 letters - set\_fact: tenant\_country\_code\_2l: “{{ lookup(‘pipe’, ‘python -c "from iso3166 import countries; print countries.get("USA").alpha2"’) }}” TASK [../../roles/isam : set\_fact] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Traceback (most recent call last): File “”, line 1, in NameError: name ‘USA’ is not defined fatal: [runner\_ansible]: FAILED! =\> { “failed”: true } MSG: An unhandled exception occurred while running the lookup plugin ‘pipe’. Error was a \, original message: lookup\_plugin.pipe(python -c “from iso3166 import countries; print countries.get(“USA”).alpha2”) returned 1 ` Would you know how to do it? I’ve tried several solutions but can’t work this out… I guess I’m missing sthg in ansible… Best regards, Sabrina ---
**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:** [July 31, 2018, 9:56am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/4 "2018-07-31T09:56:28Z")
The problem is the first quote after the colon, what I do to in these situation is to use multi line YAML since you then don't need the quotes.    - set\_fact:        tenant\_country\_code\_2l: |-          {{ lookup('pipe', 'python -c "from iso3166 import countries; print countries.get(\"USA\").alpha2"') }} ---
**Author:** ![Sabrina\_Lautier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sabrina\_Lautier](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sabrina_Lautier)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 10:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/5 "2018-07-31T10:43:13Z")
Thanks Kai for your quick answer. However ansible does not like this syntax (I’m using version 2.6.2 and can’t update to an higher version). ` # cat ./roles/tasks/the\_task.yml # Convert the 3 letter country code to 2 letters - set\_fact: tenant\_country\_code\_2l: |- {{ lookup(‘pipe’, ‘python -c “from iso3166 import countries; print countries.get("USA").alpha2”’) }} # ansible-playbook … ERROR! Syntax Error while loading YAML. The error appears to have been in ‘/nfs/home/slautier/git/odm-oncloud/operate/roles/isam/tasks/create\_customer\_and\_update\_subscription\_in\_ops\_db.yml’: line 20, column 1, but may be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem. The offending line appears to be: - name: Print the 2 letters country code ^ here exception type: \ exception: while scanning a simple key in “”, line 18, column 1 could not find expected ‘:’ in “”, line 20, column 1 ` I have never heard of ‘|-’, what is it? ---
**Author:** ![Sabrina\_Lautier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sabrina\_Lautier](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sabrina_Lautier)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 10:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/6 "2018-07-31T10:58:36Z")
It works :)! ` - set\_fact: tenant\_country\_code\_2l: | {{ lookup(‘pipe’, ‘python -c “from iso3166 import countries; print countries.get("USA").alpha2”’) }} ` Thanks again, I didn’t know about “|” but read the doc [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference\_appendices/YAMLSyntax.html](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/YAMLSyntax.html) and I know now :). Thanks a thousand. ---
**Author:** ![Sabrina\_Lautier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sabrina\_Lautier](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sabrina_Lautier)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/7 "2018-07-31T11:29:04Z")
Well, it’s not totally solved as I need know to make the ansible variable recognized to the python command… This does not work as variable **country\_code** is unknown: ` - set\_fact: country\_code\_2l: | {{ lookup(‘pipe’, ‘python -c “print country\_code”’) }} ` I guess the question really is: how to pass the ansible variable country\_code to the python command line. Any clue will be welcome, I’m still searching/testing… but haven’t found anything yet… Best, Sabrina ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 11:38am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/8 "2018-07-31T11:38:54Z")
Hi, > Well, it's not totally solved as I need know to make the ansible > variable recognized to the python command... > > This does not work as variable \*country\_code\* is unknown: > - set\_fact: >     country\_code\_2l: | >       {{ lookup('pipe', 'python -c "print country\_code"') }} > > I guess the question really is: how to pass the ansible variable > country\_code to the python command line. you should be able to do it like this: - set\_fact:      country\_code\_2l: |        {{ lookup('pipe', 'python -c "print \"' ~ country\_code ~ '\""') }} The tilde is Jinja's string concatenation. Note that this does no sanitizing, so if country\_code happens to include a double quote (or backslash), you have a problem. Cheers, Felix ---
**Author:** ![Sabrina\_Lautier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sabrina\_Lautier](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sabrina_Lautier)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/9 "2018-07-31T12:28:15Z")
Thanks a million, it works and I learnt a lot (I didn’t know about the ‘~’, I’m pretty new in ansible, I started 1 month ago, still a lot to learn…). Best, Sabrina ---
**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:** [July 31, 2018, 12:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-it-possible-to-natively-convert-a-3-letter-country-code-to-a-2-letter-one-e-g-usa-us/28201/10 "2018-07-31T12:32:11Z")
> It works :)! > > - set\_fact: >     tenant\_country\_code\_2l: | >       {{ lookup('pipe', 'python -c "from iso3166 import countries; print > countries.get(\"USA\").alpha2"') }} You need to have the minus sign after the pipe to remove the new line at the end. If you add this you'll see that it's there    - debug: var=tenant\_country\_code\_2l The minus after the pipe say strip newline at the end. > Thanks again, I didn't know about "|" but read the doc > [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference\_appendices/YAMLSyntax.html](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/YAMLSyntax.html) > and I know now :). This answer is a good reference on YAML multi line [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3790454/in-yaml-how-do-i-break-a-string-over-multiple-lines#21699210](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3790454/in-yaml-how-do-i-break-a-string-over-multiple-lines#21699210)