Ansible / Automation / DevOps / Infrastructre & Hardware

Ansible Convert List to String

I noticed many users are using different and wrong methods to convert a list data to string format. You can use existing filters and functions in Ansible to achieve the same.

Here is our list

  vars:
    my_list:
      - "apple"
      - "mango"
      - "orange"

Now we need to convert this to a single string with comma separated (or separated by any other character). I found users are using loops and adding to a string value but there is a simple way to do this as shown below.

    - name: Concatenate a list to string
      set_fact:
        my_string: "{{ my_list | join(',') }}"

Find the full playbook below.

---
- name: List to String Conversion
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    my_list:
      - "apple"
      - "mango"
      - "orange"
  tasks:
    - name: Print the List
      debug:
        msg: "{{ my_list }}"

    - name: Concatenate a list to string
      set_fact:
        my_string: "{{ my_list | join(',') }}"

    - name: Print the String
      debug:
        msg: "{{ my_string }}"

Sample execution

$ ansible-playbook site.yml

PLAY [List to String Conversion] *********************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *******************************************************************************************

ok: [localhost]

TASK [Print the List] ********************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": [
        "apple",
        "mango",
        "orange"
    ]
}

TASK [Concatenate a list to string] ******************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Print the String] ******************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "apple,mango,orange"
}

PLAY RECAP *******************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=4    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

Check Ansible Real Life GitHub repository for all use cases.

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Tags: ansible for beginners · ansible full course · ansible list to string · ansible list to string operation · ansible string handling · ansible string to list · how to convert list to string in ansible

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