Question

I’ve got a Python list of dictionaries as follows:

a = [
    {'main_color': 'red', 'second_color':'blue'},
    {'main_color': 'yellow', 'second_color':'green'},
    {'main_color': 'yellow', 'second_color':'blue'},
]

I’d like to check whether a dictionary with a particular key/value already exists in the list as follows:

// is a dict with 'main_color'='red' in the list already?
// if not: add item

Answer 1

Here’s one way to do it:

if not any(d['main_color'] == 'red' for d in a):
    # does not exist

The part in parentheses is a generator expression that returns True for each dictionary that has the key-value pair you are looking for, otherwise False.

---

If the key could also be missing the above code can give you a KeyError. You can fix this by using get and providing a default value. If you don’t provide a default value, None is returned.

if not any(d.get('main_color', default_value) == 'red' for d in a):
    # does not exist