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Adolfo Correa
Asked: 2020-09-19 20:08:14 +0800 CST 2020-09-19 20:08:14 +0800 CST

How to list all files in a folder using Python?

  • 772

I build a program that requires to know the files in the working directory ( current working directory ). Therefore, I made the following code, which finds and confirms the existence of the file named arq_buscado:

def encontrar_arq(arq_buscado, camino):
   encontrado = False
   # lista_arq = ls(camino) #función que lista todos los archivos de la ruta
   for nome_arq in lista_arq:
       if nome_arq == arq_buscado:
           encontrado = True
   return encontrado

How can I get the list of all files in a folder in a Python list?

python

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    There are different ways to get all the files in a directory. Different ways are shown below, all of them return a list when called like this:

    lista_arq = ls(ruta)   # no especificar ruta para tomar el directorio actual


    1. Greater efficiency with os.scandir()-

      Returns an iterator to objects that hold the properties of files, making it more efficient (for example, you don't need to make an additional system call to see if an object is a file or a directory).

      from os import scandir, getcwd

def ls(ruta = getcwd()):
    return [arch.name for arch in scandir(ruta) if arch.is_file()]

      Or if you want to get the absolute path of each file:

      from os import scandir, getcwd
from os.path import abspath

def ls(ruta = getcwd()):
    return [abspath(arch.path) for arch in scandir(ruta) if arch.is_file()]


    1. With the library pathliband its main class Path-

      It offers a higher level of consistency between different operating systems, without the need to directly reference os, also avoiding many system calls.

      from pathlib import Path

def ls(ruta = Path.cwd()):
    return [arch.name for arch in Path(ruta).iterdir() if arch.is_file()]

      * thanks to kikocorreoso for the reference and his jewelery article .


    1. List all directories and files with listdir()- and 

      from os import listdir

def ls(ruta = '.'):
    return listdir(ruta)

      Or just files :

      from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join

def ls(ruta = '.'):
    return [arch for arch in listdir(ruta) if isfile(join(ruta, arch))]


    1. More control with os.walk()- and

      You can get only the files in a more compact way :

      from os import walk

def ls(ruta = '.'):
    return next(walk(ruta))[2]

      Or you can have more control if you want, getting two lists ( directories and files )

      from os import walk

def ls(ruta = '.'):
    dir, subdirs, archivos = next(walk(ruta))
    print("Actual: ", dir)
    print("Subdirectorios: ", subdirs)
    print("Archivos: ", archivos)
    return archivos

      And if you also want to get the files from all the subdirectories , let's iterate as follows:

      from os import walk, getcwd

def ls(ruta = getcwd()):
    listaarchivos = []
    for (_, _, archivos) in walk(ruta):
        listaarchivos.extend(archivos)
    return listaarchivos


    1. Using wildcards in glob()- and

      To search for files using wildcards ( *, ?, [seq]and [!seq])

      from glob import glob

def ls(expr = '*.*'):
    return glob(expr)

      This function returns the full path of each file.

      Example:

      print(ls('/etc/*.conf'))


    1. Find files with a regular expression - and 

      from os import walk, getcwd, path
import re

def ls(regex = '', ruta = getcwd()):
    pat = re.compile(regex, re.I)
    resultado = []
    for (dir, _, archivos) in walk(ruta):
        resultado.extend([ path.join(dir,arch) for arch in 
                              filter(pat.search, archivos) ])
        # break  # habilitar si no se busca en subdirectorios
    return resultado

      Example:

      print(ls( r'-\d+\.[^.\d]*$', '/'))
    • 25 
  2. import os
def encontrar_arq(arq_buscado, camino):
    encontrado = False
    for i in camino:
        if camino == arq_buscando:
            econtrado = True
    return encontrado

    Hope this can help you :)

    • 2