Copy Files from Directory to Folders using Python

Question

I Have a folder with 150 pdf files. I also have a list of 200 names which correspond to a number of those pdf files. I.e. with the following format:

Mark: 100900, 890210, 1212012

Sam: 210102, 203101,

Matt: 123101, 120123, 123123, 123101

etc.

I would like to create subdirectories for all the names, and then make copies of the pdf files from the original folder into each of the subdirectories.

What I have now so far is create the directories, but now trying to figure out how to copy files from a seperate folder if there matches with the main list.

import itertools
 import os

 dirs = ["Mark","Sam","Matt","..."]

 for item in dirs:
     os.makedirs(item)

Possible Duplicate question. Answer is at: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/123198/how-do-i-copy-a-file-in-python http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3397752/copy-multiple-files-in-python — Versatile, May 28 '15 at 14:47
What I am trying to figure out is how to copy a file if there is a match, it is not just how to copy a file. — user1982011, May 28 '15 at 14:48
The pdf files are variable in their names, some have numbers and others have words. — user1982011, May 28 '15 at 14:49
What version of python are you using? Python 2 or 3? Also. What operating system is this using/is this targeted for? This can affect the answers quite significantly — Dudemanword, May 28 '15 at 14:53
please state a clear question or describe the expected outcome, the actual outcome and which part you think fails and how — knitti, May 28 '15 at 15:34
The question is clear. I have a folder with files. I have a txt file which shows folder <> file relationships. I would like to copy files from the main directory to folder subdirectories. — user1982011, May 28 '15 at 16:42

KseniaK · Answer 1 · 2015-05-28T15:42:02.150

I would suggest you to use shutil, it is good for working with files in directories

And the code will look as follows:

 import shutil
 import os
 from os.path import exists
 from os import listdir

 nameslist = ["Mark: 100900, 890210, 1212012","Sam: 210102, 203101", "Matt: 123101, 120123, 123123, 123101"]

for item in nameslist: 
parts = item.split(': ')
names = parts[0]
numbers = parts[1].split(", ") #get lists from numbers
if not exists(names):  #create directories
    os.mkdir(names)

for f in listdir(os.getcwd()):  
    if f.endswith(".pdf"):
        if f.replace(".pdf",'') in numbers:
            shutil.copy(f, names)

Hope this helps.

If your .pdf files are not in the directory of your python file, replace os.getcwd() with path to that directory

Copy Files from Directory to Folders using Python

1 Answers1