The get()
method returns the value of the specified key in the dictionary.
Example
scores = {
'Physics': 67,
'Maths': 87,
'History': 75
}
result = scores.get('Physics')
print(scores) # 67
Syntax of Dictionary get()
The syntax of get()
is:
dict.get(key[, value])
get() Parameters
get()
method takes maximum of two parameters:
- key - key to be searched in the dictionary
- value (optional) - Value to be returned if the key is not found. The default value is
None
.
Return Value from get()
get()
method returns:
- the value for the specified key if key is in the dictionary.
None
if the key is not found and value is not specified.- value if the key is not found and value is specified.
Example 1: How does get() work for dictionaries?
person = {'name': 'Phill', 'age': 22}
print('Name: ', person.get('name'))
print('Age: ', person.get('age'))
# value is not provided
print('Salary: ', person.get('salary'))
# value is provided
print('Salary: ', person.get('salary', 0.0))
Output
Name: Phill Age: 22 Salary: None Salary: 0.0
Python get() method Vs dict[key] to Access Elements
get()
method returns a default value if the key
is missing.
However, if the key is not found when you use dict[key]
, KeyError
exception is raised.
person = {}
# Using get() results in None
print('Salary: ', person.get('salary'))
# Using [] results in KeyError
print(person['salary'])
Output
Salary: None Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 7, in print(person['salary']) KeyError: 'salary'