How can i dynamically generate a list of switch entities to turn on/off, based on various criteria?

[solar aurora]

Hi, i'm looking to see how (if it's even possible) to generate a list of switch entities that i can pass to something like a service.turn_off. Here's my use cases:

1. I have 10 smart outlets, with a left and right switch entity, which i want to incorporate into this list. They all follow the entity naming scheme of switch.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right).
2. These outlets all have a helper boolean which is used to define if it's enabled (basically if it'll be used in this automation). These all follow the naming scheme of input_boolean.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right)_enabled_christmas.
3. These outlets also all have an input select to set what side of the house the outlet provides power to. I have a Road Side and Drive Side option. These all follow the naming scheme of input_select.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right)_location_christmas
4. Depending on the trigger ID of the automation, the switches will be selected if they meet any of the following criteria:
   a. Triggered by Turn all on AND input_boolean.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right)_enabled_christmas is true.
   b. Triggered by Turn drive side on AND input_boolean.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right)_enabled_christmas is true AND input_select.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right)_location_christmas is Drive Side.
   c. Triggered by Turn road side on AND input_boolean.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right)_enabled_christmas is true AND input_select.outdoor_outlet_(number 1 through 10)_(left/right)_location_christmas is Road Side.

Basically, i've tried to set them up in the easiest way possible to automate with something like a for loop written in jinja that counts from 1 to 10 and then check the criteria, but i'm struggling to see how it can be applied to make a list of entities. I'm semi-experienced with syntax of jinja/YAML but if anyone could point me in the right direction on how to make this, it'd be appreciated. Thanks!

Other (maybe) useful information:

• I don't want to hard-write this simply as it changes every year, i have a dashboard where i configure all of these switches and have it hard-written and used it for years, but it's getting more and more tedious to edit as i add more outlets and stuff (used to only have 5, now i have double that). It's became one of those bodged automations that's a mess but it sorta works if you just don't ever touch it, it's finally time to do it properly.
• The splitting of road/drive is needed as we have 2 "switch ons", one for the neighbours' side, and one for the public-facing side of the house. different people do each one and it's tied to a Zigbee/Sonoff button which i configure on the fly to do each side.

[spice hound]

you can always ask chatgpt to generate a template for this purpose, that you can copy paste in your developer tools inside ha -> dev tools -> templates

the output should be your desired information

i do this all the time.. works great

[solar aurora]

thanks. i tried this before, and i get an error saying access to attribute "append" of "list" object is unsafe. i have asked it to try and fix this but it seems HA can't handle appending to an object? this is the code it spat out

{% set trigger_id = "turn_all_on" %}
{% set sides = ['left', 'right'] %}
{% set switches = [] %}

{% for i in range(1, 11) %}
  {% for side in sides %}
    {% set enabled = 'input_boolean.outdoor_outlet_' ~ i ~ '_' ~ side ~ '_enabled_christmas' %}
    {% set location = 'input_select.outdoor_outlet_' ~ i ~ '_' ~ side ~ '_location_christmas' %}
    {% set switch = 'switch.outdoor_outlet_' ~ i ~ '_' ~ side %}
    
    {% if is_state(enabled, 'on') %}
      {% if trigger_id == 'turn_all_on' %}
        {% set _ = switches.append(switch) %}
      {% elif trigger_id == 'turn_drive_side_on' and is_state(location, 'Drive Side') %}
        {% set _ = switches.append(switch) %}
      {% elif trigger_id == 'turn_road_side_on' and is_state(location, 'Road Side') %}
        {% set _ = switches.append(switch) %}
      {% endif %}
    {% endif %}
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

{{ switches }}

i got it to spit some new code out, but i don't think it's actually working. from what i can tell it's trying to add an array to an array, unless this is just jinja's format for Array.push()?

{% set trigger_id = "turn_all_on" %}
{% set sides = ['left', 'right'] %}
{% set switches = [] %}

{% for i in range(1, 11) %}
  {% for side in sides %}
    {% set enabled = 'input_boolean.outdoor_outlet_' ~ i ~ '_' ~ side ~ '_enabled_christmas' %}
    {% set location = 'input_select.outdoor_outlet_' ~ i ~ '_' ~ side ~ '_location_christmas' %}
    {% set switch = 'switch.outdoor_outlet_' ~ i ~ '_' ~ side %}

    {% if is_state(enabled, 'on') %}
      {% if trigger_id == 'turn_all_on' %}
        {% set switches = switches + [switch] %}
      {% elif trigger_id == 'turn_drive_side_on' and is_state(location, 'Drive Side') %}
        {% set switches = switches + [switch] %}
      {% elif trigger_id == 'turn_road_side_on' and is_state(location, 'Road Side') %}
        {% set switches = switches + [switch] %}
      {% endif %}
    {% endif %}
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

{{ switches }}

screenshot 1 shows it not working, 2nd screenshot is all the outlets that are enabled, so those should appear in that list

if i add {{switch}} into where it's attempting to add to the array, it returns all of the outlets that are needed, but the array is still empty. i think my issue here is just trying to make a list, the other stuff has been worked out by burning dinosaurs

[ionic tangle]

I think I would do all in a repeat in an automation. Think something like:
https://pastebin.com/ruTqqR1y

[solar aurora]

hi, that seems to work, but only on the left outlets. been staring at it for a while trying to work out why, but it only seems to run 10 iterations and all of them are the left ones

[ionic tangle]

ow, yeah. Make it do 20 runs 😄

[solar aurora]

yeah i just worked that out, i did all the maths in excel coz im dumb and just got to the same conclusion haha

[ionic tangle]

😄

[solar aurora]

just for my ocd's sake, how can i make them do it in socket order, left then right, like this?
i'm thinking just change the template variables to:

variables:
  outlet_number: "{{ ((repeat.index + 1) // 2) }}"
  outlet_side: "{{ 'left' if repeat.index % 2 == 1 else 'right' }}"

worked it out myself, yep that worked!

much easier than all that jinja stuff, and robust enough to just update on the fly. exactly what i needed, thank you

[ionic tangle]

yeah, that would work as well 🙂

[thick marsh]

If you would have prefixed the numbers below 10 with a zero, you could have just sorted the list of entities

[solar aurora]

i have done this with the friendly name so they sort nicely in UI, didn't know there was a way to sort them. unless you mean the entity's id, if so wouldn't that need some kind of padLeft (this is javascript's implementation, doubt it's the same in jinja?) function applied in the automation to give the numbers a 0 at the start? either way, how it's done now is working so not to worry :]

[thick marsh]

I meant if you used a 0 before the number in het entity when you initially created them, they would be in the exact order you want if you sort them in jinja template. So you could have first determined which entities need to be targeted, and then sorted those.