# with\_items: two YAML lists **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 1, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586 "2013-10-01T12:08:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Edgars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Edgars](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Edgars)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/1 "2013-10-01T12:08:08Z")
Hi As per documentation, with\_items supports yaml or vars list: ```auto with_items: somelist ``` What is syntax if I want to include two lists for with\_items? Thanks Edgars ---
**Author:** ![C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://forum.ansible.com/u/C_Morgan_Hamill)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 12:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/2 "2013-10-01T12:25:31Z")
Excerpts from Edgars's message of 2013-10-01 08:08:08 -0400: > As per documentation, with\_items supports yaml or vars list: > > with\_items: somelist > > What is syntax if I want to include two lists for with\_items? 'with\_items' collapses the first level of lists into one big list:     with\_items:       - somelist       - otherlist This will do what you want, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Edgars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Edgars](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Edgars)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/3 "2013-10-01T12:31:54Z")
It wont… It will take somelist and otherlist as values for {{ item }} variable. For example, if I do: user: name={{ item }} with\_items: - somelist - otherlist It will create two users: somelist and otherlist Edgars otrdiena, 2013. gada 1. oktobris 14:08:08 UTC+2, Edgars rakstīja: ---
**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:** [October 1, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/4 "2013-10-01T12:38:44Z")
​IIRC, with\_items will do that for lists defined without variables (unless with\_items: variable) The with\_flattened plugin will do what you want, suing multiple testing and variables. Serge​ ---
**Author:** ![Edgars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Edgars](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Edgars)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/5 "2013-10-01T13:12:13Z")
Thanks, with\_flattened works… but where is it documented?? Edgars otrdiena, 2013. gada 1. oktobris 14:08:08 UTC+2, Edgars rakstīja: ---
**Author:** ![Nick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Nick](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nick)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/6 "2013-10-01T13:14:37Z")
I’ve found that sometimes neither with\_items or with\_flattened did what I needed, at least on the face of it. But since with\_items support jinja2 syntax, I noticed there is another way to combine lists. An example snippet from a working playbook. Given vars define like this: One can concatenate lists like this (the last line is what I mean): So in your case you might consider: Cheers, N ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 1:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/7 "2013-10-01T13:31:10Z")
“I’ve found that sometimes neither with\_items or with\_flattened did what I needed, at least on the face of it.” Which is what exactly? ---
**Author:** ![Nick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Nick](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nick)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/8 "2013-10-01T14:27:49Z")
The example I gave is intended as one such case: I have a list and an item I need to combine into a flattened list. I can’t remember all the detail of what I tried and didn’t work for me, however, which is why I was vague. IIRC, I tried with\_items: - list - item with\_items: - list - [item] …and possibly some others more desperate variations involving [{{item}}], [$item] and the like. However, checking the docs I think I am confusing “with\_flattened” for “with\_nested” (since the latter is documented and the former is not). So with\_flattened in fact probably was not one of the things I tried. But the main point I was making was that there is an alternative (Jinja2 expressions) which is implied but explicitly included in the docs. N ---
**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:** [October 1, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/9 "2013-10-01T15:50:39Z")
with\_items: - list - [scalar] Won’t work per se because it won’t know to replace the bareword inside brackets with a variable with\_items: - list - [“{{scalar}}”] Should be fine (untested) Note that you should not use the name “item” in for a variable as that’s the name of the loop index, not sure if that was just illustrative or what 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Nick](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Nick)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/with-items-two-yaml-lists/13586/10 "2013-10-01T16:22:16Z")
Which implies we can’t do the following then? Unless we actually wanted the the final element to be “{ alpha: ‘one’, beta: ‘two’}”, of course - which is what “{{ elem }}” would give. But this would still work: And with\_flattened would work too, I assume. But what if scalar was a _list_ and we wanted to append it as the final item (as here)? The above would still work, but would “with\_flattened”? In other words, would this work: Or would “with\_flattened” flatten elem as well, giving the same as the following? Cheers, N