Tip: You should use dict.get(key) instead of dict[key]

A common debate among Python developers seems to stem from the retrieval of dictionary values, which can be accomplished using either dict[key] or dict.get(key).

Although you can achieve the same result using either one, dict.get() is usually preferred, as it accepts a second argument which acts as the default value shall the key not exist in the given dictionary. Due to this property, dict.get() will always return a value, whereas dict[key] will raise a KeyError if the given key is missing.

a = { 'max': 200 }
b = { 'min': 100, 'max': 250 }
c = { 'min': 50 }

a['min'] + b['min'] + c['min'] # throws KeyError
a.get('min', 0) + b.get('min', 0) + c.get('min', 0) # 150

Do you like short, high-quality code snippets and articles? So do we! Visit 30 seconds of code for more articles like this one or follow us on Twitter for daily JavaScript, React and Python snippets! 👨‍💻