Question

My intention is to have a default value for d even if the item (identified by key) is missing in adict.

d = QueryDict('')
try:
    if adict['key'] is not None:
        d = adict['key'].copy()
except KeyError:
    pass

# use d ...

I cringe at the use of that exception handler. Did I violate any python code styles ?

Answer 1

This could be better:

d = (adict.get('key') or QueryDict('')).copy()

It might not be obvious what that does, though, so this might be preferable:

if 'key' in adict and adict['key'] is not None:
    d = adict['key'].copy()
else:
    d = QueryDict('')