Ansible mangles integers in lists

[fgimian]

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

ansible core

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible 2.2.0.0
  config file = 
  configured module search path = Default w/o overrides

CONFIGURATION

None

OS / ENVIRONMENT

macOS Sierra 10.11.6
Python 2.7.13

SUMMARY

Lists containing integers are casted to strings when using set_fact

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

- hosts: localhost
  vars:
    numbers:
      - 123
      - 234

  tasks:
    - name: show numbers[0]
      debug: msg="{{ numbers[0] | to_json }}"

    - name: set fact_number = numbers[0]
      set_fact: fact_number="{{ numbers[0] }}"

    - name: show fact_number
      debug: msg="{{ fact_number | to_json }}"

    - name: set fact_number = numbers[0] and expilicitly cast to int
      set_fact: fact_number="{{ numbers[0] | int }}"

    - name: show fact_number
      debug: msg="{{ fact_number | to_json }}"

EXPECTED RESULTS

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************

TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [show numbers[0]] *********************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "123"
}

TASK [set fact_number = numbers[0]] ********************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [show fact_number] ********************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "123"
}

TASK [set fact_number = numbers[0] and expilicitly cast to int] ****************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [show fact_number] ********************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "123"
}

ACTUAL RESULTS

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************

TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [show numbers[0]] *********************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "123"
}

TASK [set fact_number = numbers[0]] ********************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [show fact_number] ********************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "\"123\""
}

TASK [set fact_number = numbers[0] and expilicitly cast to int] ****************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [show fact_number] ********************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "\"123\""
}

[alikins]

This sounds like a dupe of #17992

[dagwieers]

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We made a change to Jinja2 so we don't see all variable types changed into strings. See: pallets/jinja#708

[dagwieers]

Duplicate of #17992