ansible string to variable (aka eval)

Question

I have a list of strings strs = [ 'foo', 'bar' ] and some dicts foo = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}, bar = {'a': 3, 'b': 4}. I'd like to use with_items to index into the named dicts

- copy
  src: {{item}}.a
  dest: {{item}}.b
  with_items: strs

But I want {{item}} to refer to the variables named foo and bar rather than the strings. In lisp or python I'd use eval for this. Is there something similar in ansible?

Answer 1

Why not set a dictionary and loop through it using with_dict?

---
- hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  vars:
    strs:
      foo:
        a: 1
        b: 2
      bar:
        a: 3
        b: 4

  tasks:
  - copy: src={{ item.value.a }} dest={{ item.value.b }}
    with_dict: strs