How can I add new keys to a dictionary?

Question

Is it possible to add a key to a Python dictionary after it has been created?

It doesn\'t seem to have an .add() method.

Answer 1

So many answers and still everybody forgot about the strangely named, oddly behaved, and yet still handy dict.setdefault()

This

value = my_dict.setdefault(key, default)

basically just does this:

try:
    value = my_dict[key]
except KeyError: # key not found
    value = my_dict[key] = default

e.g.

>>> mydict = {'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3}
>>> mydict.setdefault('d', 4)
4 # returns new value at mydict['d']
>>> print(mydict)
{'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4} # a new key/value pair was indeed added
# but see what happens when trying it on an existing key...
>>> mydict.setdefault('a', 111)
1 # old value was returned
>>> print(mydict)
{'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4} # existing key was ignored

Answer 2

first to check whether the key already exists

a={1:2,3:4}
a.get(1)
2
a.get(5)
None

then you can add the new key and value

Answer 3

Here's another way that I didn't see here:

>>> foo = dict(a=1,b=2)
>>> foo
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> goo = dict(c=3,**foo)
>>> goo
{'c': 3, 'a': 1, 'b': 2}

You can use the dictionary constructor and implicit expansion to reconstruct a dictionary. Moreover, interestingly, this method can be used to control the positional order during dictionary construction (post Python 3.6). In fact, insertion order is guaranteed for Python 3.7 and above!

>>> foo = dict(a=1,b=2,c=3,d=4)
>>> new_dict = {k: v for k, v in list(foo.items())[:2]}
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> new_dict.update(newvalue=99)
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'newvalue': 99}
>>> new_dict.update({k: v for k, v in list(foo.items())[2:]})
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'newvalue': 99, 'c': 3, 'd': 4}
>>> 

The above is using dictionary comprehension.

Answer 4

add dictionary key, value class.

class myDict(dict):

    def __init__(self):
        self = dict()

    def add(self, key, value):
        #self[key] = value # add new key and value overwriting any exiting same key
        if self.get(key)!=None:
            print('key', key, 'already used') # report if key already used
        self.setdefault(key, value) # if key exit do nothing


## example

myd = myDict()
name = "fred"

myd.add('apples',6)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('bananas',3)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('jack', 7)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add(name, myd)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('apples', 23)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add(name, 2)
print(myd)

Answer 5

d = {'key': 'value'}
print(d)
# {'key': 'value'}
d['mynewkey'] = 'mynewvalue'
print(d)
# {'key': 'value', 'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue'}

you create a new key\value pair on a dictionary by assigning a value to that key. If the key doesn't exist, it's added and points to that value. If it exists, the current value it points to is overwritten. —R. Navega

Answer 6

You can create one:

class myDict(dict):

    def __init__(self):
        self = dict()

    def add(self, key, value):
        self[key] = value

## example

myd = myDict()
myd.add('apples',6)
myd.add('bananas',3)
print(myd)

Gives:

>>> 
{'apples': 6, 'bananas': 3}