# What does {{ vars|random }} do ?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-does-vars-random-do/21925>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [July 5, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-does-vars-random-do/21925 "2016-07-05T14:59:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anthony\_Cheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@Anthony\_Cheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anthony_Cheng)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-does-vars-random-do/21925/1 "2016-07-05T14:59:08Z")

</div>

Looking over some ansible ec2 script I see reference to:

“{{ vars|random }}”

e.g.

vpc\_subnet\_id: “{{ ec2\_subnet\_id|random }}”  
([http://allandenot.com/devops/2015/01/31/provisioning-ec2-hosts-with-ansible.html](http://allandenot.com/devops/2015/01/31/provisioning-ec2-hosts-with-ansible.html))

Does this randomly select the variable, if so why would anyone would to do that?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![j.r.hawkesworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@j.r.hawkesworth](https://forum.ansible.com/u/j.r.hawkesworth)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-does-vars-random-do/21925/2 "2016-07-05T15:24:35Z")

</div>

This is a filter - have a look at the documentation here: [http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks\_filters.html#random-number-filter](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_filters.html#random-number-filter)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anthony\_Cheng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@Anthony\_Cheng](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Anthony_Cheng)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/what-does-vars-random-do/21925/3 "2016-07-05T15:52:37Z")

</div>

I remember reading about it now, I can see its use for multiple VPC setup.