Accessing Values of Dictionary in Python

Accessing Values of Dictionary in Python

Accessing dictionary items in Python involves retrieving the values associated with specific keys within a dictionary data structure. Dictionaries are composed of key-value pairs, where each key is unique and maps to a corresponding value. Accessing dictionary items allows us to retrieve these values by providing the respective keys.

There are various ways to access dictionary items in Python. They include ?

• Using square brackets[]
• The get() method
• Using keys() Method
• Using values() Method
• Using for loop and items() method

Example

Following is a basic example to access all the elements of the dictionary ?

my_Dict = {1:'one',2:'two',3:'three',4:'four'}
print("Dictionary :",my_Dict)

Output

Following is the output of the above code ?

Dictionary: {1: 'one', 2: 'two', 3: 'three', 4: 'four'}

Access Dictionary Items Using Square Brackets

In Python, the square brackets [] are used for creating lists, and accessing elements from a list or other iterable objects (like strings, tuples, or dictionaries).

We can access dictionary items using square brackets by providing the key inside the brackets. This retrieves the value associated with the specified key.

Example

In the following example, we have defined a dictionary containing states and capitals. We have accessed the capital city of Telangana using square brackets ?

my_Dict={'Telangana':'Hyderabad','Tamilnadu':'Chennai','Kerala':'Thiruvanthapuram','Karnataka':'Bangaluru'}
print("Capital City of Telangana:",my_Dict['Telangana'])

Following is the output of the above code ?

Capital City of Telangana: Hyderabad

If the key value which is present inside the square brackets is not present it will raise a KeyError.

Example

In the following example, when we try to access the capital city of Odisha which is not defined in the dictionary it results in an Error ?

my_Dict={'Telangana':'Hyderabad','Tamilnadu':'Chennai','Kerala':'Thiruvanthapuram','Karnataka':'Bangaluru'}
print("Capital City of Telangana:",my_Dict['Odisha'])

Following is the output of the above code ?

ERROR!
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<main.py>", line 2, in <module>
KeyError: 'Odisha'

Access Dictionary Items Using get() Method

The get() method in Python's dict class is used to retrieve the value associated with a specified key. If the key is not found in the dictionary, it returns a default value (usually None) instead of raising a KeyError.

We can access the items of the dictionary using the get() method by passing keys as an argument. We can customize any value instead of None when the key is not found in the dictionary.

Syntax

Following is the syntax to access key values of a dictionary using the get() method ?

dict.get(key, value)

Example

In the following example, we have accessed the values of the dictionary by passing keys as an argument to the get() method ?

my_Dict={'Telangana':'Hyderabad','Tamilnadu':'Chennai','Kerala':'Thiruvanthapuram','Karnataka':'Bangaluru'}
Value=my_Dict.get('Tamilnadu')
print("Capital City of Tamilnadu:",Value)

Following is the output of the above code ?

Capital City of Tamilnadu: Chennai

Example

The get() method doesn't raise a keyerror if the key is not found instead returns None ?

my_Dict={'Telangana':'Hyderabad','Tamilnadu':'Chennai','Kerala':'Thiruvanthapuram','Karnataka':'Bangaluru'}
Value=my_Dict.get('Odisha')
print("Capital City of Odisha:",Value)

Following is the output of the above code ?

Capital City of Odisha: None

Access Dictionary Items Using 'keys()' Method

The keys() method is used to return all the key values of the dictionary. These are immutable, meaning they cannot be changed once they are assigned. They must be of an immutable data type, such as strings, numbers, or tuples.

Syntax

Following is the syntax to access key values of a dictionary using the keys() method ?

dictionary.keys()

Example

In the following example, we have accessed all the key values of the dictionary using the key() method ?

my_Dict={'Telangana':'Hyderabad','Tamilnadu':'Chennai','Kerala':'Thiruvanthapuram','Karnataka':'Bangaluru'}
print(my_Dict.keys())

Following is the output of the above code ?

dict_keys(['Telangana', 'Tamilnadu', 'Kerala', 'Karnataka'])

Access Dictionary Items Using 'values()' Method

In a dictionary, values() are the data associated with each unique key. They represent the actual information stored in the dictionary and can be of any data type, such as strings, integers, lists, other dictionaries, and more. Each key in a dictionary maps to a specific value, forming a key-value pair.

Syntax

Following is the syntax to access the values of the dictionary using the values() method ?

dictionary.values()

Example

Here, we have accessed the values of the dictionary using the values() method ?

my_Dict={1:'one',2:'two',3:'three',4:'four'}
print(my_Dict.values())

Following is the output of the above code ?

dict_values(['one', 'two', 'three', 'four'])

Using 'for' loop and 'items()' method

The for loop in Python provides the ability to loop over the items of any sequence, such as a list, tuple, or string. It performs the same action on each item of the sequence.

The Python dictionary items() method returns a view object of the dictionary. The view object consists of the key-value pairs of the dictionary, as a list of tuples.

Following is the syntax of the Python dictionary items() method ?

dict.items()

We can access all the keys and values of the dictionary by iterating through the for loop and items() method.

Example

In the following example, accessed keys and values of the dictionary using the for loop and items() method ?

my_Dict={1:'one',2:'two',3:'three',4:'four'}
for key, value in my_Dict.items():
	print((key,value),end=' ')

Following is the output of the above code ?

(1, 'one') (2, 'two') (3, 'three') (4, 'four')