Extracting value from dictionary based on matching term from a list

Question

Using Python 2.7, I am trying to extract a value from a dictionary, where the key is from a list / set of possible values (and assuming that if any key is present in the dictionary, only one of the possible keys is present). For example, I want to grab the "name" value from a dictionary, where the key could be name, display_name, displayName, or displayname. I could do a bunch of if-elif statements, but hoping for something more elegant. From these SO answers, I believe I could also do something like:

keys = ['name', 'display_name', 'displayName', 'displayname']
data = {'name': 'Foo',
    'baz': 'bim'}

if any(_key in data for _key in keys):
    filtered = {k:v for k, v in data.iteritems() if k in keys}
    display_name = filtered[filtered.keys()[0]]

While that is definitely better than if-elif statements, is there a one-liner way to do this? (fill in the ????):

keys = ['name', 'display_name', 'displayName', 'displayname']
data = {'name': 'Foo',
    'baz': 'bim'}

if any(_key in data for _key in keys):
    display_name = ????

I have a bunch of these pairings to find, so that's why I'm looking for simpler solutions.

What if both `name`and `display_name` are present in the dictionary? — DJanssens, Nov 16 '15 at 17:14
I'm going to assume only one is present (or, alternatively you just arbitrarily pick one). — user, Nov 16 '15 at 19:13

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 16 '15 at 17:15

Provided you know only one key will match:

In [89]: keys = ['name', 'display_name', 'displayName', 'displayname']
         data = {'name': 'Foo', 'baz': 'bim'}
         data[set(keys).intersection(data.keys()).pop()]
Out[89]: 'Foo'

Edit: To explain. pop() for a set returns an arbitrary element, so if you know the intersection of the two sets can only be one element, it will always return what you're looking for.

Extracting value from dictionary based on matching term from a list

1 Answers1