# Selecting a subset from within with\_items **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [August 9, 2013, 8:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/selecting-a-subset-from-within-with-items/13275 "2013-08-09T08:10:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kai\_Weber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@Kai\_Weber](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Weber)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 8:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/selecting-a-subset-from-within-with-items/13275/1 "2013-08-09T08:10:36Z")
I have a task file to create users, add them to sudoers, enable ssh public key login. A minimal version looks like this ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 8:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/selecting-a-subset-from-within-with-items/13275/2 "2013-08-09T08:25:20Z")
How I solve this is by definig users in several list: ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Weber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@Kai\_Weber](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Weber)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/selecting-a-subset-from-within-with-items/13275/3 "2013-08-09T12:13:29Z")
❦ Serge van Ginderachter \: > Then depending on the task I do > with\_flattened: > - users\_dev > - users\_admin > - .. Where can I read about with\_flattened? But maybe this will not work for me. If I have users who are admins and devs I have to duplicate their definition? ---
**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 9, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/selecting-a-subset-from-within-with-items/13275/4 "2013-08-09T12:23:34Z")
I’m not sure why Serge is showing with\_flattened here, when you wanted to iterate across ssh keys per user, rather than walk across two lists. I’ve got a ticket open to create a lookup plugin more appropriate to making this easier, when there is a data structure of users. [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/3752](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/3752) We also have a ticket to make sure all the with\_\* features have examples in the 1.3 release. ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Weber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@Kai\_Weber](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Weber)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 12:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/selecting-a-subset-from-within-with-items/13275/5 "2013-08-09T12:48:28Z")
❦ Michael DeHaan \: > I've got a ticket open to create a lookup plugin more appropriate to making > this easier, when there is a data structure of users. with\_subelements sounds like a nice addition. But what I want is having a list of all users in a vars file and then for a certain host to only create this and that user. users:    foo:       name: "Foo Bar"       ssh\_key: "ssh-rsa ..."    bar:       name: "Bar Foo"       ssh\_key: "ssh-rsa ..."    foobar:       name: "Barbara Foo"       ssh\_key: "ssh-rsa ..." On host alpha - authorized\_key: name={{ item.name }} key={{ item.ssh\_key }}    with\_items:       - users.foo       - users.bar On host beta - authorized\_key: name={{ item.name }} key={{ item.ssh\_key }}    with\_items:       - users.foo       - users.foobar ---
**Author:** ![benno\_joy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@benno\_joy](https://forum.ansible.com/u/benno_joy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/selecting-a-subset-from-within-with-items/13275/6 "2013-08-09T13:10:22Z")
Would this help - hosts: localhost vars: users: - name: benno last: joy host: abc - name: jj last: jb host: bcd - name: benz last: joy host: abc tasks: - user: name=[item.name](http://item.name) with\_items: users when: item.host == inventory\_hostname Instead of host maybe use a group