Search Dictionary function in Python coming up with nothing - list

Question

So I have a dictionary with these values:
{'AFG': (13, 0, 0, 2), 'ALG': (15, 5, 2, 8), 'ARG': (40, 18, 24, 28)}
And suppose a user wants to find out what the tuple is for the three letter term. Well, he or she would punch in say, 'AFG', and it would output.
[AFG, (13,0,0,2)]
However, it is coming up with the no match found code.
What is going on? I'm punching in the name exactly as it is in the dictionary, and there are no spaces or other white space characters that it is looking for either.
My code:
def findMedals(countryDict, medalDict):
answer = [['Code','country','Gold','Silver','Bronze']]
search_str = input('What is the country you want information on? ')
#this block of code gets the country's name and three letter code onto the list
for code, country in countryDict.items():
if code == search_str:
#This block should be getting executed if I type in, say, AFG
answer = [['country','code'], [country,code]]
print (answer)
else:
#but this is being ran instead
answer = [['country','code'], ['INVALID CODE', 'n/a']]
#return answer
print (medalDict) #debug code
#this block goes and appends the medal count to the list
for code, medalCount in medalDict.items():
if search_str in code:
#this block should be getting executed
answer.append([medalCount])
else:
#it will still put in the AFG's medal count, but with no match founds.
answer.append(['No Match Found'])
print (answer) #debug code
I think it might have something to do with the else statement in the for loop, but bringing it out of the loop doesn't seem to help either.

Answer 1

You are looping over all the keys and values in the dictionary. This means that the else block is going to be called for all keys in that loop that do not match:
for code, country in countryDict.items():
if code == search_str:
#This block should be getting executed if I type in, say, AFG
answer = [['country','code'], [country,code]]
print (answer)
else:
#but this is being ran instead
answer = [['country','code'], ['INVALID CODE', 'n/a']]
#return answer
If the first key-value pair looped over does not match, the else block is executed and you appear to be returning.
To look for a matching key in the dictionary, either test for it with in or use the .get() method to get the value or a default:
if search_key in countryDict:
answer = [['country','code'], [search_key, countryDict[search_key]]
else:
answer = [['country','code'], ['INVALID CODE', 'n/a']]
or use:
country = countryDict.get(search_key)
if country:
answer = [['country','code'], [country, search_key]]
else:
answer = [['country','code'], ['INVALID CODE', 'n/a']]