Python: How to check if keys exists and retrieve value from Dictionary in descending priority

One option if the number of keys is small is to use chained gets:

value = myDict.get('lastName', myDict.get('firstName', myDict.get('userName')))

But if you have keySet defined, this might be clearer:

value = None
for key in keySet:
    if key in myDict:
        value = myDict[key]
        break

The chained gets do not short-circuit, so all keys will be checked but only one used. If you have enough possible keys that that matters, use the for loop.

Use .get(), which if the key is not found, returns None.

for i in keySet:
    temp = myDict.get(i)
    if temp is not None:
        print temp
        break

You can use myDict.has_key(keyname) as well to validate if the key exists.

Edit based on the comments -

This would work only on versions lower than 3.1. has_key has been removed from Python 3.1. You should use the in operator if you are using Python 3.1