Using multi-valued variable in a playbook - ansible

Question

I am following the redhat ansible course online and I followed the below steps to use multi-valued variable in a playbook. But I am hitting an error stating there's an undefined variable
Below is my arrays.yaml file
---
- name: show arrays
hosts: ansible1.example.com
vars_files:
- vars/users
tasks:
- name: print array values
debug:
msg: "User {{ item.username }} has homedirectory {{ item.homedir }} and shell {{ item.shell }}"
with_items: "{{ users }}"
And below is vars/users file
users:
linda:
username: linda
homedir: /home/linda
shell: /bin/bash
gokul:
username: gokul
homedir: /home/gokul
shell: /bin/bash
saha:
username: saha
homedir: /home/gokul/saha
shell: /bin/bash
And below is the error that I am hitting
ansible-playbook arrays.yaml
PLAY [show arrays] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [ansible1.example.com]
TASK [print array values] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [ansible1.example.com]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'ansible.utils.unsafe_proxy.AnsibleUnsafeText object' has no attribute 'username'\n\nThe error appears to be in '/home/ansible/install/arrays.yaml': line 7, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n tasks:\n - name: print array values\n ^ here\n"}
PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ansible1.example.com : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
However, when I try to refer individual values like below in the playbook, it works fine.
---
- name: show arrays
hosts: ansible1.example.com
vars_files:
- vars/users
tasks:
- name: print array values
debug:
msg: "User {{ users.gokul.username }} has homedirectory {{ users.gokul.homedir }} and shell {{ users.gokul.shell }}"

Answer 1

It's not possible to iterate a dictionary. Either the code or the data should be changed.
1. Change data
Use a list of users instead of a dictionary. For example, the list below
users:
- username: linda
homedir: /home/linda
shell: /bin/bash
- username: gokul
homedir: /home/gokul
shell: /bin/bash
- username: saha
homedir: /home/gokul/saha
shell: /bin/bash
would work as expected
- name: print array values
debug:
msg: "User {{ item.username }}
has homedirectory {{ item.homedir }}
and shell {{ item.shell }}"
loop: "{{ users }}"
2. Change code
It's possible to use the users dictionary with the filter dict2items. For example, the task below would give the same result
- name: print array values
debug:
msg: "User {{ item.value.username }}
has homedirectory {{ item.value.homedir }}
and shell {{ item.value.shell }}"
loop: "{{ users|dict2items }}"