# Question: how to use variable in with\_sequence, casting to int results in zero value **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** aws\ **Created:** [November 30, 2016, 8:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-how-to-use-variable-in-with-sequence-casting-to-int-results-in-zero-value/23134 "2016-11-30T08:52:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![frank1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frank1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/frank1)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 8:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-how-to-use-variable-in-with-sequence-casting-to-int-results-in-zero-value/23134/1 "2016-11-30T08:52:49Z")
I am trying to process the result from the find module. The result contains 3 file paths which i would like to process in a loop. The number of files depends on the number of files found in the directories and is set by result.matched Using the with\_sequence loop should do the trick, i think. But i ran into a problem. with\_sequence: start=0 end={{ variable }}, expects {{ variable }} to be an integer. Casting {{ variable | int}} results in a zero value, which should be 3. Any suggestions how to solve or work around my issue? After casting the variable correctly to an integer, off course i still have to subtract 1 to set the correct index value for the results array. **Variables** : file\_path: “roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/files” template\_path: “roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates” declared\_int: 3 **Tasks** : - name: find files find: recurse: yes patterns: “\*.json” paths: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/” register: result - name: register numbers variable shell: “echo {{result.matched}}” register: number - name: list number variable (==\> string value 3) debug: var=number - name: list result hard coded (works) debug: “var=result.files[{{item}}].path” with\_sequence: “start=0 end=2 stride=1” - name: list result with variable casted to integer (number is casted to 0, should be 3 ) debug: “var=result.files[{{item}}].path” with\_sequence: “start=0 end={{ number | int }} stride=1” - name: list result with declared integer variable minus 1 (works) debug: “var=result.files[{{item}}].path” with\_sequence: “start=0 end={{ declared\_int - 1 }} stride=1” - name: list result without casting variable number ( results in parsing error) debug: “var=result.files[{{item}}].path” with\_sequence: “start=0 end={{ number }} stride=1” **Output** : ok: [aws] =\> { “changed”: false, “examined”: 25, “files”: [ { “atime”: 1480345980.447014, “ctime”: 1480345980.451014, “dev”: 2049, “gid”: 1000, “inode”: 523227, “isblk”: false, “ischr”: false, “isdir”: false, “isfifo”: false, “isgid”: false, “islnk”: false, “isreg”: true, “issock”: false, “isuid”: false, “mode”: “0644”, “mtime”: 1480345980.447014, “nlink”: 1, “path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/ReadOnly/readOnly.json”, “rgrp”: true, “roth”: true, “rusr”: true, “size”: 1655, “uid”: 1000, “wgrp”: false, “woth”: false, “wusr”: true, “xgrp”: false, “xoth”: false, “xusr”: false }, { “atime”: 1480345980.523014, “ctime”: 1480345980.527014, “dev”: 2049, “gid”: 1000, “inode”: 523175, “isblk”: false, “ischr”: false, “isdir”: false, “isfifo”: false, “isgid”: false, “islnk”: false, “isreg”: true, “issock”: false, “isuid”: false, “mode”: “0644”, “mtime”: 1480345980.527014, “nlink”: 1, “path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/PowerUser/iamAccess.json”, “rgrp”: true, “roth”: true, “rusr”: true, “size”: 136, “uid”: 1000, “wgrp”: false, “woth”: false, “wusr”: true, “xgrp”: false, “xoth”: false, “xusr”: false }, { “atime”: 1480345980.531014, “ctime”: 1480345980.539014, “dev”: 2049, “gid”: 1000, “inode”: 523226, “isblk”: false, “ischr”: false, “isdir”: false, “isfifo”: false, “isgid”: false, “islnk”: false, “isreg”: true, “issock”: false, “isuid”: false, “mode”: “0644”, “mtime”: 1480345980.531014, “nlink”: 1, “path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/PowerUser/powerUser.json”, “rgrp”: true, “roth”: true, “rusr”: true, “size”: 138, “uid”: 1000, “wgrp”: false, “woth”: false, “wusr”: true, “xgrp”: false, “xoth”: false, “xusr”: false } ], “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “age”: null, “age\_stamp”: “mtime”, “contains”: null, “file\_type”: “file”, “follow”: false, “get\_checksum”: false, “hidden”: false, “paths”: [ “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/” ], “patterns”: [ “\*.json” ], “recurse”: true, “size”: null, “use\_regex”: false }, “module\_name”: “find” }, “matched”: 3, “msg”: “” } TASK [ansible-role-iamGroups : register numbers variable] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/tasks/main.yml:9 Using module file /home/user/ansible/lib/ansible/modules/core/commands/command.py ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: user EXEC /bin/sh -c ‘( umask 77 && mkdir -p “`echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282`” && echo ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282=“`echo $HOME/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282`” ) && sleep 0’ PUT /tmp/tmpO5IsA5 TO /home/user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282/command.py EXEC /bin/sh -c ‘chmod u+x /home/user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282/ /home/user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282/command.py && sleep 0’ EXEC /bin/sh -c ‘/usr/bin/python /home/user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282/command.py; rm -rf “/home/user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1480495766.92-247180421426282/” \> /dev/null 2\>&1 && sleep 0’ changed: [aws] =\> { “changed”: true, “cmd”: “echo 3”, “delta”: “0:00:00.003979”, “end”: “2016-11-30 09:49:27.332742”, “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “\_raw\_params”: “echo 3”, “\_uses\_shell”: true, “chdir”: null, “creates”: null, “executable”: null, “removes”: null, “warn”: true }, “module\_name”: “command” }, “rc”: 0, “start”: “2016-11-30 09:49:27.328763”, “stderr”: “”, “stdout”: “3”, “stdout\_lines”: [ “3” ], “warnings”: } TASK [ansible-role-iamGroups : list number variable (==\> string value 3)] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/tasks/main.yml:13 ok: [aws] =\> { “number”: { “changed”: true, “cmd”: “echo 3”, “delta”: “0:00:00.003979”, “end”: “2016-11-30 09:49:27.332742”, “rc”: 0, “start”: “2016-11-30 09:49:27.328763”, “stderr”: “”, “stdout”: “3”, “stdout\_lines”: [ “3” ], “warnings”: } } TASK [ansible-role-iamGroups : list result hard coded (works)] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/tasks/main.yml:16 ok: [aws] =\> (item=0) =\> { “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “var”: “result.files[0].path” }, “module\_name”: “debug” }, “item”: “0”, “result.files[0].path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/ReadOnly/readOnly.json” } ok: [aws] =\> (item=1) =\> { “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “var”: “result.files[1].path” }, “module\_name”: “debug” }, “item”: “1”, “result.files[1].path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/PowerUser/iamAccess.json” } ok: [aws] =\> (item=2) =\> { “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “var”: “result.files[2].path” }, “module\_name”: “debug” }, “item”: “2”, “result.files[2].path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/PowerUser/powerUser.json” } TASK [ansible-role-iamGroups : list result with variable casted to integer (number is casted to 0, should be 3 )] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/tasks/main.yml:20 ok: [aws] =\> (item=0) =\> { “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “var”: “result.files[0].path” }, “module\_name”: “debug” }, “item”: “0”, “result.files[0].path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/ReadOnly/readOnly.json” } TASK [ansible-role-iamGroups : list result with declared integer variable minus 1 (works)] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/tasks/main.yml:24 ok: [aws] =\> (item=0) =\> { “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “var”: “result.files[0].path” }, “module\_name”: “debug” }, “item”: “0”, “result.files[0].path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/ReadOnly/readOnly.json” } ok: [aws] =\> (item=1) =\> { “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “var”: “result.files[1].path” }, “module\_name”: “debug” }, “item”: “1”, “result.files[1].path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/PowerUser/iamAccess.json” } ok: [aws] =\> (item=2) =\> { “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “var”: “result.files[2].path” }, “module\_name”: “debug” }, “item”: “2”, “result.files[2].path”: “/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/prod/PowerUser/powerUser.json” } TASK [ansible-role-iamGroups : list result without casting variable number ( results in parsing error)] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* task path: /home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/tasks/main.yml:28 fatal: [aws]: FAILED! =\> { “failed”: true, “msg”: “unknown error parsing with\_sequence arguments: u"start=0 end={u’changed’: True, u’end’: u’2016-11-30 09:49:27.332742’, u’stdout’: u’3’, u’cmd’: u’echo 3’, u’rc’: 0, u’start’: u’2016-11-30 09:49:27.328763’, u’stderr’: u’‘, u’delta’: u’0:00:00.003979’, ‘stdout\_lines’: [u’3’], u’warnings’: } stride=1". Error was: can’t parse arg end=u"{u’changed’:" as integer” } to retry, use: --limit @/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/billing-iam-pb.retry PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* aws : ok=7 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=1 ---
**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:** [December 1, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-how-to-use-variable-in-with-sequence-casting-to-int-results-in-zero-value/23134/2 "2016-12-01T19:02:11Z")
> I am trying to process the result from the find module. The result contains > 3 file paths which i would like to process in a loop. > The number of files depends on the number of files found in the directories > and is set by result.matched > > Using the with\_sequence loop should do the trick, i think. But i ran into a > problem. > > with\_sequence: start=0 end={{ variable }}, expects {{ variable }} to be an > integer. Casting {{ variable | int}} results in a zero value, which should > be 3. > > Any suggestions how to solve or work around my issue? Why not use with\_items? > After casting the variable correctly to an integer, off course i still have > to subtract 1 to set the correct index value for the results array. > > \*Variables\*: > > file\_path: "roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/files" > template\_path: "roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates" > > declared\_int: 3 > > \*Tasks\*: > > - name: find files >   find: >     recurse: yes >     patterns: "\*.json" >     paths: > "/home/user/PycharmProjects/playbook-aws-billing/roles/ansible-role-iamGroups/templates/" >   register: result > > - name: register numbers variable >   shell: "echo {{result.matched}}" >   register: number > > - name: list number variable (==\> string value 3) >   debug: var=number > > - name: list result hard coded (works) >   debug: "var=result.files[{{item}}].path" >   with\_sequence: "start=0 end=2 stride=1" - name: list result    debug: var=item.path    with\_items: result.files ---
**Author:** ![frank1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frank1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/frank1)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/question-how-to-use-variable-in-with-sequence-casting-to-int-results-in-zero-value/23134/3 "2016-12-08T14:34:19Z")
Hi Kai, Thanks for your reaction. I think item.path won’t work because of the structure of result.files. result.files contains a list [..path..], [.path..] ,So in the debug var i should reference item[0].path , item[1].path I worked my way around creating a list # create a list of policies to be defined - name: create list of files debug: msg: “{{ result.files | map(attribute=‘path’) | list }}” register: fileList