Return None if Dictionary key is not available

Solution 1:

You can use dict.get()

value = d.get(key)

which will return None if key is not in d. You can also provide a different default value that will be returned instead of None:

value = d.get(key, "empty")

Solution 2:

Wonder no more. It's built into the language.

    >>> help(dict)

    Help on class dict in module builtins:

    class dict(object)
     |  dict() -> new empty dictionary
     |  dict(mapping) -> new dictionary initialized from a mapping object's
     |      (key, value) pairs
    ...
     |  
     |  get(...)
     |      D.get(k[,d]) -> D[k] if k in D, else d.  d defaults to None.
     |  
    ...