# Passing complex data (JSON) to a module **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [April 21, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030 "2015-04-21T05:31:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jan-Piet_Mens)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/1 "2015-04-21T05:31:18Z")
How can I obtain a complex data structure within an Ansible module? Given the following vars\_file: ---
**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:** [April 21, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/2 "2015-04-21T13:28:30Z")
have you tried?:   zlist = dict(required=True, type=dict) default type is a string, which you would have to json.loads to create a complex structure. ---
**Author:** ![Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jan-Piet_Mens)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/3 "2015-04-21T21:42:34Z")
> have you tried?: > >   zlist = dict(required=True, type=dict) I tried 'dict' in single quotes with no noticeable difference.    zlist = dict(required=True, type='dict') > default type is a string, which you would have to json.loads to create > a complex structure. That's what I thought, but json.loads(zlist) reported either a parse error. I'm 500 Km distant from the machine unfortunately, but I did notice that the quoting of the string was incorrect for JSON. Instead of the double quotes in, say,         { "name" : "Jane" } I saw single quotes (in the zlist string)         { 'name' : 'Jane' } Something's not quite right, but I can't figure it out.         -JP ---
**Author:** ![Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Toshio_Kuratomi)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 12:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/4 "2015-04-22T12:57:43Z")
> > have you tried?: > > > >   zlist = dict(required=True, type=dict) > > I tried 'dict' in single quotes with no noticeable difference. > >    zlist = dict(required=True, type='dict') Looking at the zones variable, it should probably be type='list' but this isn't actually the root of the problem. >          tasks: >          - name: COMplex DATa >            action: comdata zlist="{{ zones }}" >            register: n The problem is that the key value parsing is reading zones as a string instead of as a list. In my testing either of these alternatives will work: - name: COMplex DATa   comdata:     zlist: "{{ zones }}"   register: n - name: COMplex DATa   action: comdata   args:     zlist: "{{ zones }}"   register: n jimi-c, bcoca: Is this a bug in the key-value parsing or simply a way that it is different from the better complex-args syntax? -Toshio ---
**Author:** ![Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jan-Piet_Mens)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/5 "2015-04-24T20:23:42Z")
> In my testing either of these alternatives will work: Thank you very much, Toshio!         -JP ---
**Author:** ![Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jan-Piet_Mens)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 7:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/6 "2015-04-27T19:30:06Z")
> The problem is that the key value parsing is reading zones as a string > instead of as a list. In my testing either of these alternatives will > work: > > - name: COMplex DATa >   comdata: >     zlist: "{{ zones }}" >   register: n Followup after testing: yes, that works, but what the module gets isn't JSON. I've tried with type=str, list and dict. The best is `str' but json.loads() won't touch it because the elements are enclosed in single quotes instead of in double quotes. I can, using ast.literal\_eval(), parse it into a Python data structure, but it's certainly not JSON. The module and its data and simple playbook are at [1]. Regards,         -JP [1] [https://gist.github.com/jpmens/4b67010fc6cbe9ff42bc](https://gist.github.com/jpmens/4b67010fc6cbe9ff42bc) ---
**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:** [April 27, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/7 "2015-04-27T19:42:36Z")
The data type of ‘zones’ appears to actually be a list. Switching the type to ‘list’ appears to resolve your issue. Then you can remove your json/ast block and change ‘data’ out for ‘zlist’ and I get: PLAY [localhost] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK: [COMplex DATa] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* changed: [localhost] =\> {“changed”: true, “msg”: “OK”, “newdata”: [“[ONE.DE](http://ONE.DE)”, “[THIRTEEN.COM](http://THIRTEEN.COM)”]} PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* localhost : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 ---
**Author:** ![Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@Jan-Piet\_Mens](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jan-Piet_Mens)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/passing-complex-data-json-to-a-module/18030/8 "2015-04-28T19:26:36Z")
> The data type of 'zones' appears to actually be a list. Switching the type > to 'list' appears to resolve your issue. With 2.0 yes. I swear this didn't work on 1.8.something ... (Can't test now though.) Thank you.         -JP