Implementing a find function makes this read a lot nicer. You could also call it find_first or find_next. def find(predicate, iterable, default=None):

Implementing a find function makes this read a lot nicer. You could also call it find_first or find_next. def find(predicate, iterable, default=None): """Returns the first value that matches predicate, otherwise default=None""" return next( (x for x in iterable if predicate(x)), default ) Which turns the expression to find(lambda x: 'widgets' in x, mixed_widgets)['widgets']