# Multiple line vars not being processed

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/multiple-line-vars-not-being-processed/13348>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [August 22, 2013, 11:33am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/multiple-line-vars-not-being-processed/13348 "2013-08-22T11:33:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![howachen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/54ee81/32.png) [@howachen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/howachen)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 11:33am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/multiple-line-vars-not-being-processed/13348/1 "2013-08-22T11:33:46Z")

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Example:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 11:42am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/multiple-line-vars-not-being-processed/13348/2 "2013-08-22T11:42:35Z")

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If doing a line break, do this:

action: \>  
module: user  
…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://forum.ansible.com/u/C_Morgan_Hamill)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/multiple-line-vars-not-being-processed/13348/3 "2013-08-22T14:41:23Z")

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Excerpts from howachen's message of 2013-08-22 07:33:46 -0400:

> &nbsp;&nbsp;- name: add user  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;action:  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;module: user  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;name={{ user\_name }}  
> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;uid={{ user\_id }}

In addition to what Michael noted, the above is not valid YAML. You can  
do either:

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- name: add user  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;action:  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;module: user  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;name: "{{ user\_name }}"  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;uid: "{{ user\_id }}"

or:

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- name: add user  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;action: \>  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;user  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;name={{ user\_name }}  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;uid={{ user\_id }}

In the former, 'action' is being interpreted as a hash table by the YAML  
parser, while in the former, 'action' contains a string with 'key=value'  
style arguments which are parsed by Ansible's user module. Both are  
valid in Ansible, but you can't mix them, as everything still needs to  
be valid YAML.