Python List Files in a Directory

In this article, we will see how to list all files of a directory in Python. There are multiple ways to list files of a directory. In this article, We will use the following four methods.

• os.listdir('dir_path'): Return the list of files and directories present in a specified directory path.
• os.walk('dir_path'): Recursively get the list all files in directory and subdirectories.
• os.scandir('path'): Returns directory entries along with file attribute information.
• glob.glob('pattern'): glob module to list files and folders whose names follow a specific pattern.

How to List All Files of a Directory

Example to List Files of a Directory

Let’s see how to list files of an ‘account’ folder. The listdir() will list files only in the current directory and ignore the subdirectories.

Example 1: List only files from a directory

import os

# folder path
dir_path = r'E:\\account\\'

# list to store files
res = []

# Iterate directory
for path in os.listdir(dir_path):
    # check if current path is a file
    if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(dir_path, path)):
        res.append(path)
print(res)

Output:

Here we got three file names.

['profit.txt', 'sales.txt', 'sample.txt']

If you know generator expression, you can make code smaller and simplers using a generator function as shown below.

Generator Expression:

import os

def get_files(path):
    for file in os.listdir(path):
        if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(path, file)):
            yield file

Then simply call it whenever required.

for file in get_files(r'E:\\account\\'):
    print(file)

Example 2: List both files and directories.

Directly call the listdir('path') function to get the content of a directory.

import os

# folder path
dir_path = r'E:\\account\\'

# list file and directories
res = os.listdir(dir_path)
print(res)

Output:

As you can see in the output, ‘reports_2021’ is a directory.

['profit.txt', 'reports_2021', 'sales.txt', 'sample.txt']

os.walk() to list all files in directory and subdirectories

The os.walk() function returns a generator that creates a tuple of values (current_path, directories in current_path, files in current_path).

Note: Using the os.walk() function we can list all directories, subdirectories, and files in a given directory.

It is a recursive function, i.e., every time the generator is called, it will follow each directory recursively to get a list of files and directories until no further sub-directories are available from the initial directory.

For example, calling the os.walk('path') will yield two lists for each directory it visits. The first list contains files, and the second list includes directories.

Let’s see the example to list all files in directory and subdirectories.

Example:

from os import walk

# folder path
dir_path = r'E:\\account\\'

# list to store files name
res = []
for (dir_path, dir_names, file_names) in walk(dir_path):
    res.extend(file_names)
print(res)

Output:

['profit.txt', 'sales.txt', 'sample.txt', 'december_2021.txt']

from os import walk

# folder path
dir_path = r'E:\\account\\'
res = []
for (dir_path, dir_names, file_names) in walk(dir_path):
    res.extend(file_names)
    # don't look inside any subdirectory
    break
print(res)

os.scandir() to get files of a directory

The scandir() function returns directory entries along with file attribute information, giving better performance for many common use cases.

It returns an iterator of os.DirEntry objects, which contains file names.

Example:

import os

# get all files inside a specific folder
dir_path = r'E:\\account\\'
for path in os.scandir(dir_path):
    if path.is_file():
        print(path.name)

Output:

profit.txt
sales.txt
sample.txt

Glob Module to list Files of a Directory

The Python glob module, part of the Python Standard Library, is used to find the files and folders whose names follow a specific pattern.

For example, to get all files of a directory, we will use the dire_path/*.* pattern. Here, *.* means file with any extension.

Read more: Python list files in a directory with extension txt.

Let’s see how to list files from a directory using a glob module.

Example:

import glob

# search all files inside a specific folder
# *.* means file name with any extension
dir_path = r'E:\account\*.*'
res = glob.glob(dir_path)
print(res)

Output:

['E:\\account\\profit.txt', 'E:\\account\\sales.txt', 'E:\\account\\sample.txt']

Note: If you want to list files from subdirectories, then set the recursive attribute to True.

Example:

import glob

# search all files inside a specific folder
# *.* means file name with any extension
dir_path = r'E:\demos\files_demos\account\**\*.*'
for file in glob.glob(dir_path, recursive=True):
    print(file)

Output:

E:\account\profit.txt
E:\account\sales.txt
E:\account\sample.txt
E:\account\reports_2021\december_2021.txt

Pathlib Module to list files of a directory

From Python 3.4 onwards, we can use the pathlib module, which provides a wrapper for most OS functions.

• Import pathlib module: Pathlib module offers classes and methods to handle filesystem paths and get data related to files for different operating systems.
• Next, Use the pathlib.Path('path') to construct directory path
• Next, Use the iterdir() to iterate all entries of a directory
• In the end, check if a current entry is a file using the path.isfile() function

Example:

import pathlib

# folder path
dir_path = r'E:\\account\\'

# to store file names
res = []

# construct path object
d = pathlib.Path(dir_path)

# iterate directory
for entry in d.iterdir():
    # check if it a file
    if entry.is_file():
        res.append(entry)
print(res)