Iterate Through a Dictionary in Python

In Python, you can loop through a dictionary in several ways, depending on whether you need to access its keys, values, or both. Here are the common methods:

Iterate Through Keys (Default Behavior)

When you iterate directly over a dictionary using a for loop, it returns the keys by default.

For example:

person = {"name": "James", "age": 30, "location": "London"}

for key in person:
    print(key)

Output:

name
age
location

You can also call the .keys() method explicitly to get the keys.

person = {"name": "James", "age": 30, "location": "London"}

for key in person.keys():
    print(key)

Output:

name
age
location

You can use each key inside the loop to access its value.

person = {"name": "James", "age": 30, "location": "London"}

for key in person:
    print(f"Key: {key}, Value: {person[key]}")

Output:

Key: name, Value: James
Key: age, Value: 30
Key: location, Value: London

Iterate Through Values

If you only need the values, you can use the .values() method.

For example:

person = {"name": "James", "age": 30, "location": "London"}

for value in person.values():
    print(value)

Output:

James
30
London

Iterate Through Key-Value Pairs

If you need both keys and values, you can use the .items() method.

For example:

person = {"name": "James", "age": 30, "location": "London"}

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

Output:

Key: name, Value: James
Key: age, Value: 30
Key: location, Value: London