How to print a dictionary's key?

Question

I would like to print a specific Python dictionary key:

mydic = {}
mydic['key_name'] = 'value_name'

Now I can check if mydic.has_key('key_name'), but what I would like to do is print the name of the key 'key_name'. Of course I could use mydic.items(), but I don't want all the keys listed, merely one specific key. For instance I'd expect something like this (in pseudo-code):

print "the key name is", mydic['key_name'].name_the_key(), "and its value is", mydic['key_name']

Is there any name_the_key() method to print a key name?

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Edit: OK, thanks a lot guys for your reactions! :) I realise my question is not well formulated and trivial. I just got confused because i realised key_name and mydic['key_name'] are two different things and i thought it would incorrect to print the key_name out of the dictionary context. But indeed i can simply use the 'key_name' to refer to the key! :)

Answer 1

What's wrong with using 'key_name' instead, even if it is a variable?

Answer 2

import pprint
pprint.pprint(mydic.keys())

Answer 3

Make sure to do

dictionary.keys()
# rather than
dictionary.keys

Answer 4

I looked up this question, because I wanted to know how to retrieve the name of "the key" if my dictionary only had one entry. In my case, the key was unknown to me and could be any number of things. Here is what I came up with:

dict1 = {'random_word': [1,2,3]}
key_name = str([key for key in dict1]).strip("'[]'")        
print(key_name)  # equal to 'random_word', type: string.

Answer 5

In Python 3:

# A simple dictionary
x = {'X':"yes", 'Y':"no", 'Z':"ok"}

# To print a specific key (for example key at index 1)
print([key for key in x.keys()][1])

# To print a specific value (for example value at index 1)
print([value for value in x.values()][1])

# To print a pair of a key with its value (for example pair at index 2)
print(([key for key in x.keys()][2], [value for value in x.values()][2]))

# To print a key and a different value (for example key at index 0 and value at index 1)
print(([key for key in x.keys()][0], [value for value in x.values()][1]))

# To print all keys and values concatenated together
print(''.join(str(key) + '' + str(value) for key, value in x.items()))

# To print all keys and values separated by commas
print(', '.join(str(key) + ', ' + str(value) for key, value in x.items()))

# To print all pairs of (key, value) one at a time
for e in range(len(x)):
    print(([key for key in x.keys()][e], [value for value in x.values()][e]))

# To print all pairs (key, value) in a tuple
print(tuple(([key for key in x.keys()][i], [value for value in x.values()][i]) for i in range(len(x))))

Answer 6

Hmm, I think that what you might be wanting to do is print all the keys in the dictionary and their respective values?

If so you want the following:

for key in mydic:
  print "the key name is" + key + "and its value is" + mydic[key]

Make sure you use +'s instead of ,' as well. The comma will put each of those items on a separate line I think, where as plus will put them on the same line.