I wanted to test if a key exists in a dictionary before updating the value for the key. I wrote the following code:
if 'key1' in dict.keys(): print "blah" else: print "boo" I think this is not the best way to accomplish this task. Is there a better way to test for a key in the dictionary?
in is the intended way to test for the existence of a key in a dict.
d = dict() for i in xrange(100): key = i % 10 if key in d: d[key] += 1 else: d[key] = 1 If you wanted a default, you can always use dict.get():
d = dict() for i in xrange(100): key = i % 10 d[key] = d.get(key, 0) + 1 ... and if you wanted to always ensure a default value for any key you can use defaultdict from the collections module, like so:
from collections import defaultdict d = defaultdict(lambda: 0) for i in xrange(100): d[i % 10] += 1 ... but in general, the in keyword is the best way to do it.
You don't have to call keys:
if 'key1' in dict: print "blah" else: print "boo" That will be much faster as it uses the dictionary's hashing as opposed to doing a linear search, which calling keys would do.
You can test for the presence of a key in a dictionary, using the in keyword:
d = {'a': 1, 'b': 2} 'a' in d # A common use for checking the existence of a key in a dictionary before mutating it is to default-initialize the value (e.g. if your values are lists, for example, and you want to ensure that there is an empty list to which you can append when inserting the first value for a key). In cases such as those, you may find the collections.defaultdict() type to be of interest.
In older code, you may also find some uses of has_key(), a deprecated method for checking the existence of keys in dictionaries (just use key_name in dict_name, instead).
You can shorten this:
if 'key1' in dict: ... However, this is at best a cosmetic improvement. Why do you believe this is not the best way?
I would recommend using the setdefault method instead. It sounds like it will do everything you want.
>>> d = {'foo':'bar'} >>> q = d.setdefault('foo','baz') #Do not override the existing key >>> print q #The value takes what was originally in the dictionary bar >>> print d {'foo': 'bar'} >>> r = d.setdefault('baz',18) #baz was never in the dictionary >>> print r #Now r has the value supplied above 18 >>> print d #The dictionary's been updated {'foo': 'bar', 'baz': 18} For additional info on speed execution of the accepted answer's proposed methods (10m loops):
'key' in mydict elapsed time 1.07 secmydict.get('key') elapsed time 1.84 secmydefaultdict['key'] elapsed time 1.07 secTherefore using in or defaultdict are recommended against get.
Just an FYI adding to Chris. B (best answer):
d = defaultdict(int) Works as well; the reason is that calling int() returns 0 which is what defaultdict does behind the scenes (when constructing a dictionary), hence the name "Factory Function" in the documentation.
For checking you can use has_key() method
if dict.has_key('key1'): print "it is there" If you want a value then you can use get() method
a = dict.get('key1', expeced_type) If you want a tuple or list or dictionary or any string as a default value as return value, then use get() method
a = dict.get('key1', {}).get('key2', []) You can use the has_key() method:
if dict.has_key('xyz')==1: #update the value for the key else: pass Or the dict.get method to set a default value if not found:
mydict = {"a": 5} print mydict["a"] #prints 5 print mydict["b"] #Throws KeyError: 'b' print mydict.get("a", 0) #prints 5 print mydict.get("b", 0) #prints 0 The ways in which you can get the results are:
Which is better is dependent on 3 things:
Read More: http://paltman.com/try-except-performance-in-python-a-simple-test/
Use of try/block instead of 'in' or 'if':
try: my_dict_of_items[key_i_want_to_check] except KeyError: # Do the operation you wanted to do for "key not present in dict". else: # Do the operation you wanted to do with "key present in dict." What about using EAFP (easier to ask forgiveness than permission):
try: blah = dict["mykey"] # key exists in dict except: # key doesn't exist in dict See other SO posts:
Dictionary in python has a get('key', default) method. So you can just set a default value in case there is no key. values = {...} myValue = values.get('Key', None)
print dict.get('key1', 'blah')
Won't print boo for the values in the dict, but accomplishes the goal by printing the value of key1 to confirm it's existence instead.
Using ternary operator:
message = "blah" if 'key1' in dict else "booh" print(message) Python dictionary has the method called __contains__. This method will return True if the dictionary has the key else returns False.
>>> temp = {} >>> help(temp.__contains__) Help on built-in function __contains__: __contains__(key, /) method of builtins.dict instance True if D has a key k, else False. Well.. You will be familiar that searching a element's existence in a list or data means going through everything (at least for unordered list e.g dict.keys ).So Instead using Exception and Errors that arise normally we can avoid that complexity...
d={1:'a',2:'b'} try: needed=d[3] print(needed) except: print("Key doesnt exist") Easiest one is if you know which key(key name) is to look for:
# suppose your dictionary is my_dict = {'foo': 1, 'bar': 2} # check if a key is there if 'key' in my_dict.keys(): # it will evaluates to true if that key is present otherwise false. # do something or you can also do simply as:
if 'key' in my_dict: # it will evaluates to true if that key is present otherwise false. # do something I use the try/except; if an exception is throwed, than the key aren't present at the dictionary. example:
st = 'sdhfjaks' d = {} try: print d['st'] except Exception, e: print 'Key not in the dictionary'