What is the Python way to walk a directory tree?

user_647496 0
Viewed 49289

I feel that assigning files, and folders and doing the += [item] part is a bit hackish. Any suggestions? I'm using Python 3.2

from os import *
from os.path import *

def dir_contents(path):
    contents = listdir(path)
    files = []
    folders = []
    for i, item in enumerate(contents):
        if isfile(contents[i]):
            files += [item]
        elif isdir(contents[i]):
            folders += [item]
    return files, folders
directory-walk python
13 Answers

os.walk and os.scandir are great options, however, I've been using pathlib more and more, and with pathlib you can use the .glob() method:

root_directory = Path(".")
for path_object in root_directory.glob('**/*'):
    if path_object.is_file():
        print(f"hi, I'm a file: {path_object}")
    elif path_object.is_dir():
        print(f"hi, I'm a dir: {path_object}")
monkut_247180

For anyone looking for a solution using pathlib (python >= 3.4)

from pathlib import Path

def walk(path): 
    for p in Path(path).iterdir(): 
        if p.is_dir(): 
            yield from walk(p)
            continue
        yield p.resolve()

# recursively traverse all files from current directory
for p in walk(Path('.')): 
    print(p)

# the function returns a generator so if you need a list you need to build one
all_files = list(walk(Path('.')))

However, as mentioned above, this does not preserve the top-down ordering given by os.walk

user_36450160

Since Python >= 3.4 the exists the generator method Path.rglob. So, to process all paths under some/starting/path just do something such as

from pathlib import Path

path = Path('some/starting/path') 
for subpath in path.rglob('*'):
    # do something with subpath

To get all subpaths in a list do list(path.rglob('*')). To get just the files with sql extension, do list(path.rglob('*.sql')).

user_32103310

Another solution how to walk a directory tree using the pathlib module:

from pathlib import Path

for directory in Path('.').glob('**'):
    for item in directory.iterdir():
        print(item)

The pattern ** matches current directory and all subdirectories, recursively, and the method iterdir then iterates over each directory's contents. Useful when you need more control when traversing the directory tree.

user_12326600
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