Return value from nested dictionary in Python

Question

I'm trying to get values from a nested dict via user input. The problem is that the nested dictionaries have generic names (d1,d1, etc.). The user inputs, say, last name and the program returns the email.

I know this is basic, so I apologize in advance. This is what I have so far.

my_dict = {
    'd1':{
        'fname':'john',
        'lname':'doe',
        'age':'26',
        'email':'[email protected]'
    },
    'd2':{
        'fname':'mary',
        'lname':'jane',
        'age':'32',
        'email':'[email protected]'
    }
}

lname = input("enter last name: ")

for emp in my_dict.items():
    print(emp)

Output:

enter last name: john
('d1', {'fname': 'john', 'lname': 'doe', 'age': '26', 'email': '[email protected]'})
('d2', {'fname': 'mary', 'lname': 'jane', 'age': '32', 'email': '[email protected]'})

You could iterate through my_dict until you find the person you're looking for with .items(). — Gamma032
– Gamma032, Commented Apr 23, 2022 at 5:39
Tried that, but it won't make much difference. It returns each nested dict,, but it won't return the value needed. — PythonNoob
– PythonNoob, Commented Apr 23, 2022 at 5:42
@Bharel I was just trying to make sense of nested dicts. Why would you prefer to use a list of dicts? Is there any advantage? — PythonNoob
– PythonNoob, Commented Apr 24, 2022 at 2:52
Of course, using a placeholder as a dict name instead of using a list of dictionaries is boh slower and takes more memory. It is also less readable, as someone is trying to understand why use a dict in here in the first place. — Bharel
– Bharel, Commented Apr 24, 2022 at 3:05

Michael Hodel · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-23 06:16:42Z

2

This is a function that takes a last name as input, then iterates over each dictionary (key, value) pair and returns the email as soon as there is a match:

def get_email_from_last_name(last_name):
    for v in my_dict.values():
        if v['lname'] == last_name:
            return v['email']

lname = input("enter last name: ")
email = get_email_from_last_name(lname)
print(email)

prints:

enter last name: doe
[email protected]

edited Apr 23, 2022 at 6:16

answered Apr 23, 2022 at 5:41

Michael Hodel

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2 Comments

deceze Over a year ago

If you don’t need k at all, you could simply iterate through .values() instead of .items()…

Michael Hodel Over a year ago

good point, just adjusted my answer.

Bharel · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-28 06:45:08Z

0

Per OP's comment, here is a solution with a simple tuple instead:

my_data = (
    {
        'fname':'john',
        'lname':'doe',
        'age':'26',
        'email':'[email protected]'
    },
    {
        'fname':'mary',
        'lname':'jane',
        'age':'32',
        'email':'[email protected]'
    }
)

lname = input("enter last name: ")
for person in my_data:
  if lname == person["lname"]:
    print(person)

You can also map according to the last name, but that is not necessarily a one-to-one relationship.

answered Apr 28, 2022 at 6:45

Bharel

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