normal dict gera Keyerror após consultar chaves que não existem

>>> from collections import defaultdict
>>> my_dict = {"one": 1, "two": 2}
>>> my_dict["three"]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
KeyError: 'three'

mas usando um lamda em um deafultdict podemos definir valores padrão para chaves indefinidas

# create a default dict, from a dict
>>> my_def_dict = defaultdict(lambda: -1, my_dict)
>>> my_def_dict["zero"]
-1

# create an empty default dict
>>> empty_def_dict = defaultdict(lambda: true)
# add key-value pairs here