Check if list of file paths exist

Question

I have a list of file paths. I need to check which of the files in the list exist and which are not. I want to delete the paths that do not exist. I know i can use os.path.exists() or os.path.isfile() but for these I need to run a for loop and check each path in the list. Is there a better way to do this in python?

nothing's wrong with for loop i just want to know if there is another way. I dont know why would you downvote for that. — bananagator, Nov 30 '19 at 01:36
if you're worried about performance, maybe just check the existence of a path right before you use it. unless you need to make sure that ALL of paths exist before you execute any code, to avoid half-deployed stuff. maybe look into list comprehensions. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22108488/are-list-comprehensions-and-functional-functions-faster-than-for-loops — ingernet, Nov 30 '19 at 01:36
You need to define "better" here. What is it you want to improve on the solution you already seem to have? — juanpa.arrivillaga, Nov 30 '19 at 01:43

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 30 '19 at 01:43

2

I'm assuming you are trying to delete the files from the list not from the os

You can do this with a list comprehension:

files = [...] # list of file paths

files = [path for path in files if os.path.exists(path)]

answered Nov 30 '19 at 01:43

smac89

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If the OP is worried about performance, then set is likely to be a bit more performant than a list - especially if their are many paths to check. – Tony Suffolk 66 Nov 30 '19 at 02:00

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 30 '19 at 01:43

If all paths are within the same folder you can retrieve all files that exist in the folder in one call to os.listdir then you can use set operations to get all paths in your list that exist in the directory

files_in_dir = set(os.listdir(PATH))
existing_files = set(your_list_of_files) & files_in_dir

Check if list of file paths exist

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