How to append facts to a dictionary and append it to a list

How to append facts to a dictionary and append it to a list

We need to store some facts using set_fact, but we want to store them in a dictionary format.

For example, we want to store dictionary user information into a list accounts

  tasks:
  - name: New dict
    set_fact:
      account: "{{ {} | combine( {'name':'john', 'phone':'123-123-1234'}) }}"

  - name: Another way to create new dict
    set_fact:
      account:
        name: john
        phone: 123-123-1234

  - name: Add some more info
    set_fact:
      account: "{{ account | default ({}) | combine( {'gender':'male', 'age':'55'}) }}"

  - name: Append list
    set_fact:
      accounts: "{{ accounts | default ([]) + [ account ] }}"

  - name: New dict
    set_fact:
      account: "{{ {} | combine( {'name':'peter', 'phone':'212-222-4567'}) }}"

  - name: Append list
    set_fact:
      accounts: "{{ accounts | default ([]) + [ account ] }}"

  - debug:
      msg: "{{ accounts }}"

The result will looks like

TASK [debug] ************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": [
        {
            "age": "55",
            "gender": "male",
            "name": "john",
            "phone": "123-123-1234"
        },
        {
            "name": "peter",
            "phone": "212-222-4567"
        }
    ]
}

Easy way

  - set_fact:
      some_list_of_dicts: "{{ _cur_value +  [ item ] }}"
    loop:
      - { a: 1, b: 2 }
      - { x: 1, y: 2 }
    vars:
      _cur_value: "{{ some_list_of_dicts | default([]) }}"