How do I sort a list of strings by alphabetical order and length in Ansible?

I tried to sort Linux block device used by ansible_facts.

I want to sort by alphabetical order and length.

Expected result

sda, sdb ,sdc, ..., sdaa, sdab, ..., sdbb

Current result

sda, sdaa, sdab, sdac ..., sdb, sdb, sdba, sdbb, sdbc, ...

How can I sort sdaa device after sdz device?

- name: test
  hosts: localhost

  vars:
    - device: [sda,sdab,sdac,sdb,sdc,sdd,sde,sdf,sdg,sdh,sdi,sdj,sdk,sdl,sdm,sdn,sdo,sdp,sdq,sdr,sds,sdt,sdu,sdv,sdw,sdx,sdy,sdz,sdaa]

  tasks:
    - name: test
      debug:
        msg: "{{ device | sort }}"

The result is

ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": [
        "sda",
        "sdaa",
        "sdab",
        "sdac",
        "sdb",
        "sdc",
        "sdd",
        "sde",
        "sdf",
        "sdg",
        "sdh",
        "sdi",
        "sdj",
        "sdk",
        "sdl",
        "sdm",
        "sdn",
        "sdo",
        "sdp",
        "sdq",
        "sdr",
        "sds",
        "sdt",
        "sdu",
        "sdv",
        "sdw",
        "sdx",
        "sdy",
        "sdz"
    ]
}

Solution

Flatten lists sorted by the length of the items. Create the below list of lists

    dmin: "{{ device|map('length')|min }}"
    dmax: "{{ device|map('length')|max }}"

    device_sorted_lists: |
      {% filter from_yaml %}
      {% for len in range(dmin|int, dmax|int + 1) %}
      {% set regex='^.{' ~ len ~ '}$' %}
      - {{ device|select('regex', regex)|sort }}
      {% endfor %}
      {% endfilter %}

Flatten the lists

  device_sorted: "{{ device_sorted_lists|flatten }}"

gives

  device_sorted:
  - sda
  - sdb
  - sdc
  - sdd
  - sde
  - sdf
  - sdg
  - sdh
  - sdi
  - sdj
  - sdk
  - sdl
  - sdm
  - sdn
  - sdo
  - sdp
  - sdq
  - sdr
  - sds
  - sdt
  - sdu
  - sdv
  - sdw
  - sdx
  - sdy
  - sdz
  - sdaa
  - sdab
  - sdac

^{Example of a complete playbook for testing
- hosts: all

vars:

device: [sda,sdab,sdac,sdb,sdc,sdd,sde,sdf,sdg,sdh,sdi,sdj,sdk,sdl,sdm,sdn,sdo,sdp,sdq,sdr,sds,sdt,sdu,sdv,sdw,sdx,sdy,sdz,sdaa]

dmin: "{{ device|map('length')|min }}"
dmax: "{{ device|map('length')|max }}"

device_sorted_lists: |
{% filter from_yaml %}
{% for len in range(dmin|int, dmax|int + 1) %}
{% set regex='^.{' ~ len ~ '}$' %}
- {{ device|select('regex', regex)|sort }}
{% endfor %}
{% endfilter %}

device_sorted: "{{ device_sorted_lists|flatten }}"

tasks:

- debug:
var: device_sorted_lists

- debug:
var: device_sorted}