I want to insert a key-value pair into dict if key not in dict.keys(). Basically I could do it with:
if key not in d.keys():
d[key] = value
But is there a better way? Or what's the pythonic solution to this problem?
You do not need to call d.keys(), so
if key not in d:
d[key] = value
is enough. There is no clearer, more readable method.
You could update again with dict.get(), which would return an existing value if the key is already present:
d[key] = d.get(key, value)
but I strongly recommend against this; this is code golfing, hindering maintenance and readability.
Use dict.setdefault():
>>> d = {'key1': 'one'}
>>> d.setdefault('key1', 'some-unused-value')
'one'
>>> d # d has not changed because the key already existed
{'key1': 'one'}
>>> d.setdefault('key2', 'two')
'two'
>>> d
{'key1': 'one', 'key2': 'two'}
Since Python 3.9 you can use the merge operator | to merge two dictionaries. The dict on the right takes precedence:
new_dict = old_dict | { key: val }
For example:
new_dict = { 'a': 1, 'b': 2 } | { 'b': 42 }
print(new_dict) # {'a': 1, 'b': 42}
Note: this creates a new dictionary with the updated values.