Understanding Split in Ansible: A Powerful Tool for Data Transformation

Mastering Ansible’s Split Filter

Introduction

Ansible is a powerful automation tool widely used in IT operations for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. One of the lesser-known but incredibly useful features of Ansible is the “split” filter. This filter allows you to divide strings into smaller components or split lists into sublists, making it a valuable tool for data transformation and manipulation in your playbooks. In this article, we will explore the split filter in Ansible, its syntax, and various use cases.

Understanding the Split Filter

The split filter in Ansible allows you to divide a string or list into smaller elements based on a specified delimiter. You can use it to extract specific information from a string or restructure a list into more manageable parts. The syntax for using the split filter is straightforward:

{{ some_variable | split(delimiter) }}

• some_variable: The variable you want to split.
• delimiter: The character or substring used as a separator to split the variable.

Common Use Cases

1. Splitting Strings: