Should I use 'has_key()' or 'in' on Python dicts?

Question

I wonder what is better to do:

d = {'a': 1, 'b': 2} 

'a' in d 

True

or:

d = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}

d.has_key('a') 

True

Answer 1

• If we talk about a more Pythonic way then “in” is preferred over has_key(). The advantage of “in” is it will work on any collection.

• has_key() is removed in Python 3.x. It is only in Python 2.x which is used very less. Also, it is a dictionary method and only used with dictionaries.

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