Sentry Answers>Python>

Iterate over a dictionary in Python

Iterate over a dictionary in Python

David Y.

—

The ProblemJump To Solution

How can I iterate over a dictionary using a Python for loop?

The Solution

The simplest way to iterate over a Python dictionary is to iterate over its keys. The following code will print each key in a dictionary with its corresponding value:

Click to Copy
word_counts = {"the": 3, "a": 5, "be": 2, "do": 1}

for key in word_counts:
    print(f"{key}: {word_counts[key]}")

While this works, we may prefer to iterate over keys and values at the same time. Python’s built-in dict class includes a method called items(), which returns a dictionary view object that can be used for exactly this purpose. Below, we’ve rewritten our code to use this method:

Click to Copy
word_counts = {"the": 3, "a": 5, "be": 2, "do": 1}

for key, value in word_counts.items():
    print(f"{key}: {value}")

You can also use the enumerate() function to get the index and key-value in the iteration. This is useful if you need the position of the element in the dictionary along with the key-value pair:

Click to Copy
word_counts = {"the": 3, "a": 5, "be": 2, "do": 1}

for index, (key, value) in enumerate(word_counts.items()):
    print(f"{index}  {key}:{value}")
  • Sentry BlogPython Performance Testing: A Comprehensive Guide
  • Sentry BlogLogging in Python: A Developer’s Guide
  • Syntax.fm logo
    Listen to the Syntax Podcast

    Tasty Treats for Web Developers brought to you by Sentry. Web development tips and tricks hosted by Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski

    Listen to Syntax

Loved by over 4 million developers and more than 90,000 organizations worldwide, Sentry provides code-level observability to many of the world’s best-known companies like Disney, Peloton, Cloudflare, Eventbrite, Slack, Supercell, and Rockstar Games. Each month we process billions of exceptions from the most popular products on the internet.

learn more about sentryjoin our discord
© 2024 • Sentry is a registered Trademark
of Functional Software, Inc.