Ansible Lists & Dicts Overview

Reference: Ansible

All members of a list are lines beginning at the same indentation level starting with a -  (a dash and a space):

---
# A list of tasty fruits
fruits:
    - Apple
    - Orange
    - Strawberry
    - Mango

A dictionary is represented in a simple key: value  form (the colon must be followed by a space):

# An employee record
martin:
    name: Martin D'vloper
    job: Developer
    skill: Elite

More complicated data structures are possible, such as lists of dictionaries, dictionaries whose values are lists or a mix of both:

# Employee records
-  martin:
    name: Martin D'vloper
    job: Developer
    skills:
      - python
      - perl
      - pascal
-  tabitha:
    name: Tabitha Bitumen
    job: Developer
    skills:
      - lisp
      - fortran
      - erlang

Dictionaries and lists can also be represented in an abbreviated form if you really want to:

---
martin: {name: Martin D'vloper, job: Developer, skill: Elite}
fruits: ['Apple', 'Orange', 'Strawberry', 'Mango']

Additional Example

Reference: OzNetNerd.com

The below example can was taken from the selectattr( )  page:

- hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no
  vars:
    network:
      addresses:
        private_ext:
          - type: fixed
            addr: 172.16.2.100
        private_man:
          - type: fixed
            addr: 172.16.1.100
          - type: floating
            addr: 10.90.80.10

---

As always, if you have any questions or have a topic that you would like me to discuss, please feel free to post a comment at the bottom of this blog entry, e-mail at will@oznetnerd.com, or drop me a message on Reddit (OzNetNerd).

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not those of my employer.