Get the key corresponding to the minimum value within a dictionary

python dictionary min minimum idioms
tjvr picture tjvr · Jul 19, 2010 · Viewed 249.6k times · Source

If I have a Python dictionary, how do I get the key to the entry which contains the minimum value?

I was thinking about something to do with the min() function...

Given the input:

{320:1, 321:0, 322:3}

It would return 321.

Answer

Alex Martelli picture Alex Martelli · Jul 19, 2010

Best: min(d, key=d.get) -- no reason to interpose a useless lambda indirection layer or extract items or keys!

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