Removing array brackets in the ansible variable result - ansible

Question

I have an issue about removing the array brackets in the output. I need the output without the array brackets so that i can pass the result in the rest api code. I have an example listed here below. I would like to group each set with the name and nicknames associated with that name. I was able to group the nicknames for each host but the result has brackets which I am trying to remove.
name: Set Global Vars
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
msg: [
{
"name": "abcdsto1",
"portnames": [
{
"nickname": "abcdsto1p1",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec9a",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto1p2",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec9b",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto1p3",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec3a",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto1p4",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec3b",
"type": "fc"
}
]
},
{
"name": "abcdsto2",
"portnames": [
{
"nickname": "abcdsto2p1",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec06",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto2p2",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec07",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto2p3",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec64",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto2p4",
"port": "4353000e1ec2ec65",
"type": "fc"
}
]
},
{
"name": "abcdsto3",
"portnames": [
{
"nickname": "abcdsto3p1",
"port": "4353000e1ec43f20",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto3p2",
"port": "4353000e1ec43f21",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto3p3",
"port": "4353000e1ec43f30",
"type": "fc"
},
{
"nickname": "abcdsto3p4",
"port": "4353000e1ec43f31",
"type": "fc"
}
]
}
]
tasks:
- name: print json file
debug:
msg: "{{ item.portnames | community.general.json_query('[*].nickname') }}"
loop: "{{ msg }}"
TASK [print json file] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item={'name': 'abcdsto1', 'portnames': [{'nickname': 'abcdsto1p1', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec9a', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto1p2', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec9b', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto1p3', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec3a', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto1p4', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec3b', 'type': 'fc'}]}) => {
"msg": [
"abcdsto1p1",
"abcdsto1p2",
"abcdsto1p3",
"abcdsto1p4"
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={'name': 'abcdsto2', 'portnames': [{'nickname': 'abcdsto2p1', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec06', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto2p2', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec07', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto2p3', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec64', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto2p4', 'port': '4353000e1ec2ec65', 'type': 'fc'}]}) => {
"msg": [
"abcdsto2p1",
"abcdsto2p2",
"abcdsto2p3",
"abcdsto2p4"
]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={'name': 'abcdsto3', 'portnames': [{'nickname': 'abcdsto3p1', 'port': '4353000e1ec43f20', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto3p2', 'port': '4353000e1ec43f21', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto3p3', 'port': '4353000e1ec43f30', 'type': 'fc'}, {'nickname': 'abcdsto3p4', 'port': '4353000e1ec43f31', 'type': 'fc'}]}) => {
"msg": [
"abcdsto3p1",
"abcdsto3p2",
"abcdsto3p3",
"abcdsto3p4"
]
}
But I need the result to be
msg: abcdsto1p1,abcdsto1p2,abcdsto1p3,abcdsto1p4
msg: abcdsto2p1,abcdsto2p2,abcdsto2p3,abcdsto2p4
msg: abcdsto3p1,abcdsto3p2,abcdsto3p3,abcdsto3p4
Thanks for the help

Answer 1

I have faced this same issue. The join filter will work here to extract it from being pack into an array.
Before the join this is what I was using
{%- set _ = nodes.append(hostvars[server]['node_id']
this is what was being returned, even though it was coming form a valid list item.
- - 63dbc56c-8abb-a9e1-b604-71b4a7cf698e
If you then try to strip the extra hyphen using replace() filter, it will pack it into an array
| replace('-', '')
- '[''63dbc56c-8abb-a9e1-b604-71b4a7cf698e'']'
When filtering with join() it, it essentially gets casted to a string. If you have only one item in the array, then its just one string in your list.
{%- set _ = nodes.append(hostvars[server]['node_id'] | join(',') ) -%}\
The list data comes back cleaner, as expected
- 63dbc56c-8abb-a9e1-b604-71b4a7cf698e
just the same, the following will work on multiple elements inside array brackets
msg: "{{ item.portnames | community.general.json_query('[*].nickname') | join(',') }}"
will get you
msg: abcdsto1p1,abcdsto1p2,abcdsto1p3,abcdsto1p4
...
Thats a couple use cases where we want the value returned as a string only. We can filter with join()
Also thanks to #β.εηοιτ.βε for the tip.