Iterate dict Ansible, each key multiple values - loops

Question

I have a dict like this:
distr:
Alice:
- Avocado
- Cherries
Bob:
- Apple
David:
- Pineapple
- Watermelon
John:
- Banana
- Mango
Shara:
- Orange
- Peach
Now I want to execute a task with each combination.
Like this:
Alice eats Avocado
Alice eats Cherries
Bob eats Apple
David eats Pineapple
David eats Watermelon
...
My ansible is like that:
- name: Debug
debug:
msg: {{ item.key }} eats {{ item }}
with_items: "{{ lookup('dict', distr) }}"
The result:
TASK [Debug] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item={'key': 'Alice ', 'value': ['Avocado', 'Cherries']}) => {
"msg": "Alice eats ['Avocado', 'Cherries']"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={'key': 'Bob ', 'value': ['Apple']}) => {
"msg": "Bob eats ['Apple']"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={'key': 'David ', 'value': ['Pineapple', 'Watermelon']}) => {
"msg": "David eats ['Pineapple', 'Watermelon']"
}
I tried with subelements and other type of loops without luck. I think this is really simple.

Answer 1

We'll need to process your data to get it into a more useful structure. We want a flat list consisting of (person, food) tuples, and we can get there using the product filter, which returns the cross product of two lists. For example, the expression ["Alice"]|product(["Avocado", "Cherries"]) evalutes to [["Alice", "Avocado"], ["Alice", "Cherries"]].
We can use a looping set_fact task to create our list:
- set_fact:
cross: "{{ cross + [item[0]]|product(item[1])|list }}"
loop: "{{ distr.items()|list }}"
vars:
cross: []
The above tasks iterates through each (key, values) tuple of your
dictionary and appends the cross product of the key and values to a
new list, cross. The result looks like this:
"cross": [
[
"Alice",
"Avocado"
],
[
"Alice",
"Cherries"
],
[
"Bob",
"Apple"
],
[
"David",
"Pineapple"
],
[
"David",
"Watermelon"
],
[
"John",
"Banana"
],
[
"John",
"Mango"
],
[
"Shara",
"Orange"
],
[
"Shara",
"Peach"
]
]
Putting that all together, we get:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
distr:
Alice:
- Avocado
- Cherries
Bob:
- Apple
David:
- Pineapple
- Watermelon
John:
- Banana
- Mango
Shara:
- Orange
- Peach
tasks:
- set_fact:
cross: "{{ cross + [item[0]]|product(item[1])|list }}"
loop: "{{ distr.items()|list }}"
vars:
cross: []
- debug:
msg: "{{ item[0] }} eats {{ item[1] }}"
loop: "{{ cross }}"
And the output of running the above playbook is:
PLAY [localhost] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [set_fact] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Alice', ['Avocado', 'Cherries']])
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Bob', ['Apple']])
ok: [localhost] => (item=['David', ['Pineapple', 'Watermelon']])
ok: [localhost] => (item=['John', ['Banana', 'Mango']])
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Shara', ['Orange', 'Peach']])
TASK [debug] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Alice', 'Avocado']) => {
"msg": "Alice eats Avocado"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Alice', 'Cherries']) => {
"msg": "Alice eats Cherries"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Bob', 'Apple']) => {
"msg": "Bob eats Apple"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['David', 'Pineapple']) => {
"msg": "David eats Pineapple"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['David', 'Watermelon']) => {
"msg": "David eats Watermelon"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['John', 'Banana']) => {
"msg": "John eats Banana"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['John', 'Mango']) => {
"msg": "John eats Mango"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Shara', 'Orange']) => {
"msg": "Shara eats Orange"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=['Shara', 'Peach']) => {
"msg": "Shara eats Peach"
}
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0