How do I print the key-value pairs of a dictionary in python

python

dictionary

key-value pairs

programming

How do I print the key-value pairs of a dictionary in python

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Data Structures Python

Introduction

The standard way to print key-value pairs from a Python dictionary is to iterate with .items(), which returns each key-value pair as a tuple. You can loop through them with a for loop, format them with f-strings, or use pprint for nested dictionaries. For quick debugging, print(dict) shows the entire dictionary at once.

Basic: print(dict)

python

1user = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "NYC"}
2
3print(user)
4# {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 30, 'city': 'NYC'}

This prints the dictionary in its default representation. Fine for quick debugging, but not formatted for readability.

Iterating with .items()

python

1user = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "NYC"}
2
3for key, value in user.items():
4    print(f"{key}: {value}")
5# name: Alice
6# age: 30
7# city: NYC

.items() returns a view of (key, value) tuples. Unpacking into key, value in the loop gives clean access to both.

Formatting Options

python

1config = {"host": "localhost", "port": 5432, "debug": True}
2
3# f-string
4for k, v in config.items():
5    print(f"{k} = {v}")
6
7# format()
8for k, v in config.items():
9    print("{}: {}".format(k, v))
10
11# Aligned output with padding
12for k, v in config.items():
13    print(f"{k:<10} {v}")
14# host       localhost
15# port       5432
16# debug      True
17
18# As key=value pairs
19for k, v in config.items():
20    print(f"{k}={v!r}")
21# host='localhost'
22# port=5432
23# debug=True

!r uses repr() which adds quotes around strings, making the output copy-pasteable.

Using pprint (Pretty Print)

python

1from pprint import pprint
2
3data = {
4    "users": [
5        {"name": "Alice", "scores": [85, 92, 78]},
6        {"name": "Bob", "scores": [90, 88, 95]},
7    ],
8    "metadata": {"version": 2, "generated": "2025-01-01"},
9}
10
11pprint(data)
12# {'metadata': {'generated': '2025-01-01', 'version': 2},
13#  'users': [{'name': 'Alice', 'scores': [85, 92, 78]},
14#            {'name': 'Bob', 'scores': [90, 88, 95]}]}
15
16# Control width and depth
17pprint(data, width=40, depth=2)

pprint automatically indents nested structures. It sorts keys alphabetically by default.

Using json.dumps for Pretty Output

python

1import json
2
3data = {"name": "Alice", "scores": [85, 92, 78], "active": True}
4
5print(json.dumps(data, indent=2))
6# {
7#   "name": "Alice",
8#   "scores": [
9#     85,
10#     92,
11#     78
12#   ],
13#   "active": true
14# }

json.dumps with indent produces clean, readable output. Note: it converts Python True to JSON true and does not handle non-serializable types.

Printing Only Keys or Values

python

1user = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "NYC"}
2
3# Just keys
4for key in user:
5    print(key)
6# name
7# age
8# city
9
10# Just values
11for value in user.values():
12    print(value)
13# Alice
14# 30
15# NYC
16
17# Keys as a list
18print(list(user.keys()))
19# ['name', 'age', 'city']

One-Line Approaches

python

1user = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "NYC"}
2
3# Join with newlines
4print('\n'.join(f"{k}: {v}" for k, v in user.items()))
5
6# Using str.join with commas
7print(', '.join(f"{k}={v}" for k, v in user.items()))
8# name=Alice, age=30, city=NYC
9
10# Unpack with print
11print(*user.items(), sep='\n')
12# ('name', 'Alice')
13# ('age', 30)
14# ('city', 'NYC')

Printing Nested Dictionaries

python

1def print_dict(d, indent=0):
2    """Recursively print nested dictionaries."""
3    for key, value in d.items():
4        prefix = "  " * indent
5        if isinstance(value, dict):
6            print(f"{prefix}{key}:")
7            print_dict(value, indent + 1)
8        elif isinstance(value, list):
9            print(f"{prefix}{key}:")
10            for item in value:
11                if isinstance(item, dict):
12                    print_dict(item, indent + 1)
13                else:
14                    print(f"{prefix}  - {item}")
15        else:
16            print(f"{prefix}{key}: {value}")
17
18config = {
19    "database": {
20        "host": "localhost",
21        "port": 5432,
22        "credentials": {
23            "user": "admin",
24            "password": "secret"
25        }
26    },
27    "features": ["auth", "logging"]
28}
29
30print_dict(config)
31# database:
32#   host: localhost
33#   port: 5432
34#   credentials:
35#     user: admin
36#     password: secret
37# features:
38#   - auth
39#   - logging

Tabular Output with tabulate

python

1from tabulate import tabulate
2
3user = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "NYC", "role": "Engineer"}
4
5print(tabulate(user.items(), headers=["Key", "Value"], tablefmt="grid"))
6# +------+----------+
7# | Key  | Value    |
8# +------+----------+
9# | name | Alice    |
10# | age  | 30       |
11# | city | NYC      |
12# | role | Engineer |
13# +------+----------+

Install with pip install tabulate.

Common Pitfalls

Modifying dict during iteration: Adding or removing keys while iterating with .items() raises RuntimeError. Create a copy first: for k, v in list(d.items()):.
Printing large dicts: print(big_dict) outputs everything on one line. Use pprint or json.dumps(indent=2) for readability.
Non-string keys with json.dumps: json.dumps({1: "a"}) raises TypeError. JSON only supports string keys. Use pprint instead, or convert keys: json.dumps({str(k): v for k, v in d.items()}).
Order assumptions: Python 3.7+ dicts maintain insertion order. Printing shows keys in insertion order. pprint sorts keys alphabetically. Use sort_dicts=False (Python 3.8+) to preserve order.
repr vs str: print(value) uses str() which may hide type information. Use print(repr(value)) or f"{value!r}" to see exact types and escape characters.

Summary

Use for key, value in dict.items() with f-strings for basic printing
Use pprint.pprint() for readable nested dictionary output
Use json.dumps(dict, indent=2) for JSON-formatted output
Use f"{key:<10} {value}" for aligned columnar output
Use .keys(), .values(), or .items() to access specific parts of the dictionary
For production logging, convert to JSON or use structured logging libraries

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Data Structures & Algorithms practice on Codemia

Step through 300+ coding interview problems with animated visualisers that show the data structure changing as the code runs. The Blind 75 are free.

Practice algorithms

How do I print the key-value pairs of a dictionary in python

Data Structures & Algorithms practice on Codemia

Introduction

Basic: print(dict)

Iterating with .items()

Formatting Options

Using pprint (Pretty Print)

Using json.dumps for Pretty Output

Printing Only Keys or Values

One-Line Approaches

Printing Nested Dictionaries

Tabular Output with tabulate

Common Pitfalls

Summary

Related reading

DSA Fundamentals

Data Structures & Algorithms practice on Codemia