Automation if/then: How to use variables from the 'if' statement in the 'then' process?

Configuration Frontend
1

Hi, I have an automation with an if statement:

{% set thisEntity = trigger.entity_id.split('.')[1].split('_')[0] %}
{% set helperName = "input_text."~thisEntity~"_best" %}
{% set tempSoll = (states(helperName) | float(0)) %}


{{ (tempSoll | float(0)) < 20 }}

This gives me true or false.

In the execution I would like to use the above variables:

service: system_log.write
data:
  level: warning
  message: Heizung einschalten {{trigger.entity_id}}
enabled: true

This is working, but I need something like this to have the teperature in the log for troubleshooting:

service: system_log.write
data:
  level: warning
  message: Heizung einschalten {{thisEntity}} - Soll: {{ (tempSoll | float(0)) }}
enabled: true

Unfortunately, the variables are empty
Any hint where to read this from?

Thanks

(This is only a readable example of the overall automation to come to the point…)

2

If you include the whole automation, we’d be able to help more.

3

Because you are including Jinja templating in the message, you should have the entire thing in quotes.

  message: "Heizung einschalten {{thisEntity}} - Soll: {{ (tempSoll | float(0)) }}"
4

Good practice but not absolutely necessary if the template is not the first thing in the string. I learned about this during this conversation.

5

Yes, it’s a yaml thing.

When yaml sees {, it attempts to process it as json.

e.g.

something: {"this": "works"}

So this forces us using home assistant to use quotes for templates because they start with a {.

When you start the field with a character that’s not something that can be confused with a json object, it automatically treats it as a string.

e.g.

something: blah{{ ... }}

something: "blah{{ ... }}"

are effectively the same.

This is not

something: {"this": "works"}

something: "{"this": "works"}"

This

something: {"this": "works"}

is actually this (long hand)

something:
  this: works
2 Likes
6

These are Jinja2 variables and they are accessible only where you define them.

{% set thisEntity = trigger.entity_id.split('.')[1].split('_')[0] %}
{% set helperName = "input_text."~thisEntity~"_best" %}
{% set tempSoll = (states(helperName) | float(0)) %}

You said they were part of an if’s condition so that’s the only place in the entire automation where they are available.

I suggest you define them as script variables at the beginning of your automation’s action.

action:
  - variables:
      thisEntity: "{{ trigger.entity_id.split('.')[1].split('_')[0] }}"
      helperName: input_text.{{ thisEntity }}_best
      tempSoll: "{{ states(helperName) | float(0) }}"
  - if: "{{ tempSoll < 20 }}"
    then:
      - service: system_log.write
        data:
          level: warning
          message: Heizung einschalten {{ thisEntity }} - Soll: {{ tempSoll }}
    else:
       ... etc ...
1 Like
7

Thanks.
This was exactly I was looking for.

1 Like