How to unpack dict with one key-value pair to two variables more elegantly?

Question

Currently, I'm using this:

d = {'a': 'xyz'}
k, v = list(*d.items())

The starred expression is required here, as omitting it causes the list function/constructor to return a list with a single tuple, which contains the key and value.

However, I was wondering if there were a better way to do it.

Answer 1

Keep nesting:

>>> d = {'a': 'xyz'}
>>> ((k,v),) = d.items()
>>> k
'a'
>>> v
'xyz'

Or equivalently:

>>> (k,v), = d.items()
>>> k
'a'
>>> v
'xyz'
>>>

Not sure which I prefer, the last one might be a bit difficult to read if I was glancing at it.

Note, the advantage here is that it is non-destructive and fails if the dict has more than one key-value pair.