# Is there a way to access the host index in a group? I.e. want number in the hosts group am i? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [November 5, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693 "2015-11-05T04:43:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rob\_White](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rob\_White](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Rob_White)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693/1 "2015-11-05T04:43:06Z")
I’m sure this must’ve come up before but I couldn’t find an answer. I have a list of hosts in a group. I want to write an index number on each of those hosts in a file. E.g. the first host has a file that contains 1, the second host has a file that contains 2 etc. Now I know I can access the hosts using the groups variable E.g. groups[“mygroup”] but i can’t find any reference to an index so the host can find out which number it is. Example play … - name: Add instance to new host group add\_host: name: “{{ item }}” group: zk with\_items: - server1 - server2 - server3 - name: deploy to zk group hosts: zk tasks: - name: write a myid file based on the position in the group copy: content: {{ some\_magic\_variable??? }} dest: /zookeeper-data/myid In the above server i would expect to end up with three servers each with a myid file that contains 0, 1 or 2 Anyone know if that magic variable exists? ---
**Author:** ![Mirko\_Friedenhagen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Mirko\_Friedenhagen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mirko_Friedenhagen)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693/2 "2015-11-05T05:29:14Z")
Hello Rob, maybe [http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks\_loops.html#looping-over-a-list-with-an-index](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_loops.html#looping-over-a-list-with-an-index) might help. Regards Mirko Regards Mirko ---
**Author:** ![Rob\_White](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rob\_White](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Rob_White)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 5:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693/3 "2015-11-05T05:37:37Z")
Unfortunately not. I’m not iterating over a list. Ansible is just making it’s way through a group of hosts so i need Ansible to tell me which host it is operating on. ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 12:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693/4 "2015-11-05T12:26:41Z")
A few ways potentially: {{ play\_hosts.index(inventory\_hostname) }} If you want to know host index within a play Or: {{ groups.somegroup.index(inventory\_hostname) }} For getting the index of a host within a group. ---
**Author:** ![Rob\_White](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rob\_White](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Rob_White)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 6:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693/5 "2015-11-06T06:22:38Z")
Awesome Matt! I knew it had to exist somewhere. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![Giovanni\_Gaglione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Giovanni\_Gaglione](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Giovanni_Gaglione)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693/6 "2017-09-07T20:22:51Z")
Hi Matt, This solution does not work well when a group has multiple hostname that are all the same. E.g. > [my-hosts] > 192.168.1.1 > 192.168.1.1 > 192.168.1.1 > 192.168.1.1 In this case, do you recommend a way to get the index of the current host? ---
**Author:** ![Giovanni\_Gaglione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Giovanni\_Gaglione](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Giovanni_Gaglione)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-access-the-host-index-in-a-group-i-e-want-number-in-the-hosts-group-am-i/19693/7 "2017-09-07T21:05:41Z")
I’ve solved it this way - [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/12086#issuecomment-327927275](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/12086#issuecomment-327927275)