How to Search Item in List of Dictionaries in Python

Sometimes you may need to look for an item in a list of dictionaries in python. In this article, we will look at couple of ways to search item in list of dictionaries in Python.

How to Search Item in List of Dictionaries in Python

Here are couple of ways to search item in list of dictionaries in python. Let us say you have the following dictionary.

>>> data=[{'name':'Joe','age':20},{'name':'Tim','age':25},{'name':'Jim','age':30}]
>>> data
[{'age': 20, 'name': 'Joe'}, {'age': 25, 'name': 'Tim'}, {'age': 30, 'name': 'Jim'}]

1. Using loop

The most basic way to search an item based on key, value combination is to loop through each item and return the dictionary once it is found. Here is an example where we look for dictionary containing name = Jim

>>> for i in data:
	if i['name']=='Jim':
		print i
		
{'age': 30, 'name': 'Jim'}

2. Using next() & dictionary comprehension

You can also achieve the above output using dictionary comprehension and next() function.

>>> res = next((sub for sub in data if sub['name'] == 'Jim'), None)
>>> res
{'age': 30, 'name': 'Jim'}

In the above article, we have looked at how to search a dictionary for value and return it. You may modify and use it according to your requirement.

How to Search Item in List of Dictionaries in Python