# Variables in lookup statement for vault

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/variables-in-lookup-statement-for-vault/26902>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [March 5, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variables-in-lookup-statement-for-vault/26902 "2018-03-05T17:47:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![K\_S-Dean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@K\_S-Dean](https://forum.ansible.com/u/K_S-Dean)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variables-in-lookup-statement-for-vault/26902/1 "2018-03-05T17:47:09Z")

</div>

`"{{ lookup('vault', 'pki/issue/webserver common_name=\"test.example.com\" ip_sans=\"{{ IP_ADDR }}, {{ var=hostvars[inventory_hostname].ansible_ssh_host }}\" format=\"pem\" key_bits=4096').certificate }}"`

Hi im trying to use a variable inside a lookup statement which I’m using to query vault

I’m using the following plugin [https://github.com/jhaals/ansible-vault](https://github.com/jhaals/ansible-vault)

Now i’ve tried it with {{ variable }}, + variable +, var=variable but none of these seem to work and i don’t know the correct format.

Is this possible ?

Regards K

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [March 6, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variables-in-lookup-statement-for-vault/26902/2 "2018-03-06T18:19:22Z")

</div>

Curly brackets doesn't stack so you can't use {{ }} inside {{ }}  
So something like this should work.

{{ lookup('vault', 'pki/issue/webserver common\_name=test.example.com ip\_sans=' ~ IP\_ADDR ~ ' var=' ~ hostvars[inventory\_hostname].ansible\_ssh\_host ~ ' format=pem key\_bits=4096').certificate }}"