Streamline multiple history_stats entries?

Configuration
1

I’ve only recently discovered history_stats and I’ve started going bonkers on using it in conjunction with the Harmony remote integration to get stats on gaming/TV time used. The problem is, I’m ending up with loads of repetition which is starting to look a bit unmanageable. For instance, I have this at the moment for the last 24h use:

  - platform: history_stats
    name: Gaming time 24h - Xbox
    entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
    state: 'Xbox Series X'
    type: time
    duration: 24h
    end: '{{ now() }}'
    
  - platform: history_stats
    name: Gaming time 24h - PS5
    entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
    state: 'PS5'
    duration: 24h
    end: '{{ now() }}'
    
  - platform: history_stats
    name: Gaming time 24h - Switch (docked)
    entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
    state: 'Switch'
    type: time
    duration: 24h
    end: '{{ now() }}'
    
  - platform: history_stats
    name: TV time 24h - Netflix
    entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
    state: 'Netflix'
    type: time
    duration: 24h
    end: '{{ now() }}'
    
  - platform: history_stats
    name: TV time 24h - Sky
    entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
    state: 'Sky Q'
    type: time
    duration: 24h
    end: '{{ now() }}'

… and I’d like to do the same thing for a week duration, and maybe month, which is going to result in a massive load of text which is mostly all the same lines, especially when I will probably also have a template for each one to convert the decimal hours into hours and minutes. Is there any way to reduce some of that duplication and bloat?

I was hoping I’d be able to do something like this:

  - platform: history_stats
    type: time
    duration: 24h
    end: '{{ now() }}'
    entities:

      - entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
        name: Gaming time 24h - Xbox
        state: 'Xbox Series X'
    
      - entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
        name: Gaming time 24h - PS5
        state: 'PS5'
    
      - entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
        name: Gaming time 24h - Switch (docked)
        state: 'Switch'
    
      - entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
        name: TV time 24h - Netflix
        state: 'Netflix'
    
      - entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
        name: TV time 24h - Sky
        state: 'Sky Q'

… but I see that’s not valid. Are there any other options to do the same thing with less lines & repetition? Am I using the wrong tool for the job? Wondering if maybe I should be using the sql interface instead in some way…

2

You could use YAML Aliases and Anchors to streamline the duplicates. For example, instead of repeating these three lines for each entity:

    type: time
    duration: 24h
    end: '{{ now() }}'

you define it once then refer to it everywhere else it is needed.

I provided examples in this post:

3

That is perfect! Thanks very much, it works a treat.

It was even happy for me to include the entity_id in the anchor. so I could get away with doing this:

  - platform: history_stats
    name: Dummy Lounge 24h
    state: 'dummy'
    <<: &remote_lounge_24h 
        entity_id: sensor.harmony_remote_lounge
        type: time
        duration:
            hours: 24
        end: '{{ now() }}'

  - platform: history_stats
    name: Gaming time 24h Xbox
    state: 'Xbox Series X'
    <<: *remote_lounge_24h

  - platform: history_stats
    name: Gaming time 24h PS5
    state: 'PS5'
    <<: *remote_lounge_24h
    
  - platform: history_stats
    name: Gaming time 24h Switch (docked)
    state: 'Switch'
    <<: *remote_lounge_24h
    
  - platform: history_stats
    name: TV time 24h - Netflix
    state: 'Netflix'
    <<: *remote_lounge_24h
    
  - platform: history_stats
    name: TV time 24h - Sky
    state: 'Sky Q'
    <<: *remote_lounge_24h

… which is a massive improvement!

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