Python List Files in a Directory

To list all files in a directory using Python, you can use the built-in os module.

Also, there are multiple ways to list files in a directory. In this article, We will use the following four methods.

• os.listdir('dir_path'): Return the list of files and directories in a specified directory path.
• os.walk('dir_path'): Recursively get the list of all files in a 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 in a Directory using Python

Example: List Files in a Directory

Let’s see how to list all files in an ‘account’ directory. This example will list files present in the current directory and ignore the subdirectories.

Example 1: List only files in a directory

import os

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

# list to store files
res = []

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

Output:

Here we got three file names.

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

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

Also, you should handle the case where the directory does not exist or an error occurs while accessing it. For this, you can use a try-except block. Here’s how you can modify the code:

import os


def list_files(dir_path):
    # list to store files
    res = []
    try:
        for file_path in os.listdir(dir_path):
            if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(dir_path, file_path)):
                res.append(file_path)
    except FileNotFoundError:
        print(f"The directory {dir_path} does not exist")
    except PermissionError:
        print(f"Permission denied to access the directory {dir_path}")
    except OSError as e:
        print(f"An OS error occurred: {e}")
    return res


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

files = list_files(dir_path)
print('All Files:', files)

Generator Expression:

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

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 a directory and subdirectories

You can use os.walk() function in Python to get a list of files in a directory and all of its subdirectories/subfolders.

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

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.

It means this function will yield the paths to all files in the given directory, and recursively in all of its subdirectories. 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 of how to list all files in a directory and its 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)

Get a list of files in current directory in Python

You can use the os module and the listdir() function to get a list of files in the current directory in Python. Here’s an example.

import os

# list to store filename present in current directory
files = []
for file_path in os.listdir('.'):
    if os.path.isfile(os.path.join('.', file_path)):
        files.append(file_path)
for file in files:
    print(file)

In this code:

• '.' refers to the current directory.
• os.listdir('.') returns a list of all files and directories in the current directory.
• os.path.isfile(f) checks if each entry is a file (as opposed to a directory).

os.scandir() To get the list of files in 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 contain 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

List Files of a Directory that follow a specific pattern

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 a 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)