# Why can't my multi-instance use variables

**URL:** <https://forum.flowable.org/t/why-cant-my-multi-instance-use-variables/9186>\
**Category:** Flowable Engine\
**Created:** [April 9, 2022, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/why-cant-my-multi-instance-use-variables/9186 "2022-04-09T03:59:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![qq912360973](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.flowable.org/qq912360973/32/2783_2.png) [@qq912360973](https://forum.flowable.org/u/qq912360973)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/why-cant-my-multi-instance-use-variables/9186/1 "2022-04-09T03:59:04Z")

</div>

I have some multi-instance tasks where people are specified through one of the previous task forms.  
And I converted List to JsonNode type and saved it.All values in this collection are user ids.  
But now there is a problem,I found that the process engine parsed the elements in this collection in double quotes, making it impossible to assign tasks to users.  
For example,List is just like [“user1”,“user2”]，but the engine will recognize it as ["“user1"”,"“user2"”].  
Has anyone had a similar problem?How can I solve this problem?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joram](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.flowable.org/joram/32/26_2.png) [@joram](https://forum.flowable.org/u/joram)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/why-cant-my-multi-instance-use-variables/9186/2 "2022-04-20T17:53:17Z")

</div>

Can you share the bpmn xml? How are you passing the collection and what type it is? It looks like it is an ArrayNode?