How to Return a Default Value for Missing Dictionary Keys in Python?

Returning a Default Value for Missing Dictionary Keys

When accessing a key in a Python dictionary, you encounter a KeyError exception if the key doesn't exist. This behavior can become cumbersome, especially when you prefer to return a default value instead of handling the exception.

Explicit Default Value Retrieval

To explicitly return a default value when searching for a key, you can utilize the dict.get() method. This method takes two arguments:

• The key you're interested in
• A default value to return if the key doesn't exist (optional)

Example Usage

Here's an example to illustrate how you can use dict.get():

my_dict = {"name": "John", "age": 30}

# Retrieve the value for "name" (exists in the dictionary)
name = my_dict.get("name")  # Returns "John"

# Retrieve the value for "occupation" (doesn't exist in the dictionary)
occupation = my_dict.get("occupation")  # Returns None

# Retrieve the value for "occupation" and provide a default value
default_occupation = my_dict.get("occupation", "Unemployed")  # Returns "Unemployed"

Using dict.get() allows you to explicitly retrieve values, returning a default value if the key doesn't exist, without having to perform additional key existence checks.

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