Getting Every File in a Windows Directory

Question

I have a folder in Windows 7 which contains multiple .txt files. How would one get every file in said directory as a list?

Do you want the list of **files** (not pathnames), e.g. `a.dat b.dat...` not `C:\DIRNAME\SUBDIR\a.dat ....`? — smci, May 22 '18 at 00:01
Possible duplicate of [How do I list all files of a directory?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory) — smci, May 22 '18 at 00:05

score 26 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '11 at 01:04

You can use os.listdir(".") to list the contents of the current directory ("."):

for name in os.listdir("."):
    if name.endswith(".txt"):
        print(name)

If you want the whole list as a Python list, use a list comprehension:

a = [name for name in os.listdir(".") if name.endswith(".txt")]

score 15 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 17 '19 at 11:53

15

All of the answers here don't address the fact that if you pass glob.glob() a Windows path (for example, C:\okay\what\i_guess\), it does not run as expected. Instead, you need to use pathlib:

from pathlib import Path

glob_path = Path(r"C:\okay\what\i_guess")
file_list = [str(pp) for pp in glob_path.glob("**/*.txt")]

edited Jun 17 '19 at 11:53

Matt

71
1
1
14

answered Nov 05 '18 at 21:58

Seanny123

8,776
13
68
124

This solution works for windows. But will it also work in linux? Need my code to be portable – Plutonium smuggler Dec 02 '18 at 04:39
It will work for Linux. Path is more portable than Glob – Seanny123 Dec 02 '18 at 04:43
The last line is simpler and [faster](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3790848/fastest-way-to-convert-an-iterator-to-a-list/64512225#64512225) to write `file_list = list(glob_path.glob("**/*.txt"))` – wisbucky Oct 06 '22 at 17:37

score 15 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 01:04

15

import os
import glob

os.chdir('c:/mydir')
files = glob.glob('*.txt')

answered Apr 12 '11 at 01:04

Hugh Bothwell

55,315
8
84
99

10

Why os.chdir? Consider `glob.glob(r'c:\mydir\*.txt')` – John Machin Apr 12 '11 at 01:29
@John Machin: absolutely true, that's another way to do it. – Hugh Bothwell Apr 12 '11 at 01:36
4

It's also a way to do it without the unnecessary unasked-for side effect of changing [one of] the current working director[y|ies]. – John Machin Apr 12 '11 at 02:30
1

@JohnMachin: because that's what the question asked for: the list of **files** (not pathnames) – smci May 22 '18 at 00:00

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 01:04

2

import fnmatch
import os

return [file for file in os.listdir('.') if fnmatch.fnmatch(file, '*.txt')]

answered Apr 12 '11 at 01:04

Satyajit

3,839
1
19
14

1

isn't return only used in a function? – kurumi Apr 12 '11 at 01:21

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 01:08

If you just need the current directory, use os.listdir.

>>> os.listdir('.') # get the files/directories
>>> [os.path.abspath(x) for x in os.listdir('.')] # gets the absolute paths
>>> [x for x in os.listdir('.') if os.path.isfile(x)] # only files
>>> [x for x in os.listdir('.') if x.endswith('.txt')] # files ending in .txt only

You can also use os.walk if you need to recursively get the contents of a directory. Refer to the python documentation for os.walk.

Getting Every File in a Windows Directory

5 Answers5

Linked