Should I use 'has_key()' or 'in' on Python dicts?

Use dict.has_key() if (and only if) your code is required to be runnable by Python versions earlier than 2.3 (when key in dict was introduced).

in wins hands-down, not just in elegance (and not being deprecated;-) but also in performance, e.g.:

$ python -mtimeit -s'd=dict.fromkeys(range(99))' '12 in d'
10000000 loops, best of 3: 0.0983 usec per loop
$ python -mtimeit -s'd=dict.fromkeys(range(99))' 'd.has_key(12)'
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.21 usec per loop

While the following observation is not always true, you'll notice that usually, in Python, the faster solution is more elegant and Pythonic; that's why -mtimeit is SO helpful -- it's not just about saving a hundred nanoseconds here and there!-)

According to python docs:

has_key() is deprecated in favor of key in d.

in is definitely more pythonic.

In fact has_key() was removed in Python 3.x.