Example how to store and retrieve dictionary

[ehendrix23]

Per another issue posted here, one is supposed to be able to store not just a string but also, for example, a list or a dictionary for value. I've been trying to do this, but unable to then retrieve it.

I've tried:

  initial_value: "{'value': 0, 'day_value': 0, 'date': -1}"

  initial_value: {'value': 0, 'day_value': 0, 'date': -1}

  initial_value:
    value: 0,
    day_value: 0
    date': -1

{{ states(test).state }} returns what seems to be a string: OrderedDict([('value', 0), ('day_value', 0), ('date', -1)]) Trying to retrieve for example date with: {{ states(test).state.date }} returns nothing.

Using: {{ states(test).state['date`] }} also nothing.

{{ states(test).state[0] }} Returns: O

{{ states.var.test.state is string }} returns True

So it seems what is being returned is a string and not a dictionary.

What am I doing wrong?

[snarky-snark]

Thanks for the report. I'm looking into this.

One clarification from the HA templating docs, states('var.test') will return the state string, not the object. Though, states.var.test should return the object.

[snarky-snark]

That said, it does appear that states.var.test resolves to a string which seems wrong...

[snarky-snark]

https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/dev_101_states/

Reading through the above documentation, it seems that HA will automatically convert the value to a string before storing it in the variable entity's state.

It looks like storing non-string objects in var entities will require some involvement of state attributes. I'll have to look into this more.

[ehendrix23]

Good point on the string. This is part of something more complex where the entity id is a variable as well. But already changed that part then to states['var.test'] which would be returning the object then.

[ehendrix23]

FYI, I tried to store a dict in a value based on comment in another issue about not planning to support attributes and instead to just use value and store a dict in there.

[snarky-snark]

Thanks, I updated that ticket to point to this one.

In order to resolve this ticket, I think it needs to be determined if it is possible to store a non-string value in an entity's state. The documentation above makes it sound unlikely that that is possible.

As a workaround, it may be possible to serialize a dict to a string in jinja and then deserialize it before using it. That is an ugly workaround, though.

I still don't anticipate having time to dedicate to supporting attributes on var entities, so that workaround might be the best bet on the short term.

[snarky-snark]

See the to/from JSON examples at the link below to see how to serialize and deserialize an object to and from JSON. you should be able to use that to store a dict in a var entity.

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/templating/

Does that make sense?

[ehendrix23]

For those reading this:

initial_value does not seem to be set as a template and hence you'll need to pick something else. I chose "unknown".

To store a dictionary, here is an example on what to set value to when calling var.set:

value: >
  {{ {"value": new_value, "day_value": states(trigger.entity_id)|float, "date": date} | to_json }}

And then when retrieving, use:

      {% if states('test') == 'unknown' %}
        {% set value_json = '{"value":0, "day_value": 0, "date": "20000101"}' | from_json %}
      {% else %}
        {% set value_json = states('test') | from_json %}
      {% endif %}  

And then you can use:

value_json['value']
value_json['day_value']
value_json['date']

[snarky-snark]

initial_value does not seem to be set as a template and hence you'll need to pick something else. I chose "unknown".

If you're serializing a dict anyway, couldn't you set initial_value to something like

initial_value: '{"value":0, "day_value": 0, "date": "20000101"}'

rather than 'unknown'?

[snarky-snark]

initial_value does not seem to be set as a template and hence you'll need to pick something else. I chose "unknown".

Alternatively, if you want the initial value to be evaluated on each startup using value_template, you can track the home assistant startup event.

tracked_event_type:
- homeassistant_start