Access Dictionary Items in Python

You can access dictionary items in Python using the following methods:

(1) Using square brackets []

You can use the key inside square brackets [] to retrieve its corresponding value.

For example:

person = {"name": "James Bond", "age": 37, "city": "London"} 

name = person["name"]
age = person["age"]
city = person["city"]

print(name)
print(age)
print(city)

Output:

James Bond
37
London

If the key doesn’t exist in the dictionary, it raises a KeyError.

(2) Using get() method

The get() method returns the value for a given key. If the key is not found, it returns the default value (None if no default is provided) instead of raising KeyError.

For example:

person = {"name": "James Bond", "age": 37, "city": "London"} 

name = person.get("name")
age = person.get("age")
city = person.get("city")
occupation = person.get("occupation", "Not Found")
salary = person.get("salary")

print(name)
print(age)
print(city)
print(occupation)
print(salary)

Output:

James Bond
37
London
Not Found
None

(3) Accessing all keys

You can get a view object containing all keys in a dictionary using the key() method. This view object can be iterated.

For example:

person = {"name": "James Bond", "age": 37, "city": "London"} 

keys = person.keys()
print(keys)

for key in keys:
    print(key)

Output:

dict_keys(['name', 'age', 'city'])
name
age
city

(4) Accessing all values

You can get a view object containing all the values using the values() method.

For example:

person = {"name": "James Bond", "age": 37, "city": "London"} 

values = person.values()
print(values)

for value in values:
    print(value)

Output:

dict_values(['James Bond', 37, 'London'])
James Bond
37
London

(5) Accessing all key-value pairs (items)

The items() method returns a view object containing all the key-value pairs as tuples. This is useful for iterating through the dictionary and accessing both keys and values.

For example:

person = {"name": "James Bond", "age": 37, "city": "London"} 

items = person.items()

for key, value in items:
    print(f"Key: {key} Value: {value}")

Output:

Key: name Value: James Bond
Key: age Value: 37
Key: city Value: London

(6) Check if a key exists

You can check if a key exist in a dictionary using the in keyword.

For example:

person = {"name": "James Bond", "age": 37, "city": "London"} 

if "age" in person.keys():
    print("Age is present in the dictionary")

Output:

Age is present in the dictionary

Also Read:

Access Nested Dictionary Items in Python