[Tutor] Getting first item in dictionary

[Mats Wichmann]

On 1/27/20 4:51 AM, S D wrote:
> I have a dictionary which contains one item (“current_location”, which is a
> nested dict) and I would like to access that nested dict. However, I cannot
> use the key as the code will break if a different key is passed, e.g.
> “different_location".
> 
> How can I access the first item in a dictionary without using a key? The
> dict looks like this:
> 
> ```
> {'current_location': {'date': '2020-01-27T10:28:24.148Z', 'type_icon':
> 'partly-cloudy-day', 'description': 'Mostly Cloudy', 'temperature': 68.28,
> 'wind': {'speed': 10.48, 'bearing': 178, 'gust': 12.47}, 'rain_prob': 0.02,
> 'latitude': '-33.927407', 'longitude': '18.415747', 'request_id': 31364,
> 'request_location': 'Current location'}}
> ```


Two simple ways:

>>> d = {'key': 'value'}

1. use the dict's get method, which returns None if not found:

>>> v = d.get('key')
>>> print(v)
value
>>> v = d.get('foo')
>>> print(v)
None
>>> 

2. use a try/except:

>>> for k in ('key', 'foo'):
...     try:
...         print(d[k])
...     except KeyError:
...         print("No such key:", k)
...
value
No such key: foo
>>>