Ansible to print the variable value having another variable inside it

July 6, 2022

In a.yml file, I have stored data like below

---
 Server:
   "Node1" : ["Node1", "Owner1", "ID1"]
   "Node2" : ["Node2", "Owner2", "ID2"]

Now, in xyz.yml playbook, I tried to debug a variable as below and I am passing the Node_Name in commandline (ansible-playbook xyz.yml -e "Node_Name=Node1")

---
 - name: "Print Variable value"
   hosts: all
   gather_facts: no
   vars:
     Node_Name: Node
     ID_Name: "{{ Server.{{ data1 }}[2] }}"
   tasks:
   - name: "Print the id"
     debug:
       msg:
         - "The id is {{ ID_Name }}"

But this is failing with error – Template error while templating string :expected name or number

Can someone please help to fix this and let me know how can I get the ID printed as output. Here expected output is ID1

>Solution :

You never nest {{...}} markers.

Recall that to access a nested variable. the syntax Server.Node1 is exactly equivalent to Server["Node1"]. The second syntax allows us to make use of variables (and string interpolation) on the key, so we can write:

Server[Node_Name]

In other words:

- name: "Print Variable value"
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: no
  vars:
    Node_Name: Node
    ID_Name: "{{ Server[Node_Name][2] }}"
  tasks:
  - name: "Print the id"
    debug:
      msg:
        - "The id is {{ ID_Name }}"