ansible - variable within variable

Question

Ansible 1.9.2 version.

Does Ansible supports variable expansion within a variable while evaluating it.

I have a task to download 3 zip files from Artifactory

Answer 1

It does.

You can use

set_fact:
  variable: '{{ vars['my_' + variablename + '_variable'] }}'

the only downside of this approach so far is, it won't dynamically expand variables that get the value of another variable. an example:

roles/xxx/defaults/main.yml:

var1: foo
var2: '{{ var1 }}'

This, unfortunately will not work when trying to use the resolved value in var2. Hence,

- debug: msg='{{ vars["var2"] }}'

will output {{ var1 }} instead of foo.

Workaround:

In your vars declaration, instead of using var2: {{ var1 }}, use var2: '{{ vars["var1"] }}'. That way, it will work.