Finding pathnames matching a Unix-style pattern in Python
The glob standard library helps to find pathnames matching a Unix-style pattern, using its glob() function. You can use Unix wildcards such as *, ? and character ranges with [ ].
# Directory structure of sample Folder |
│ 1ab.txt |
│ a2.txt |
│ a2b.txt |
│ abc.txt |
│ def.txt |
│ picture.jpg |
│ python.py |
│ word.docx |
└───dir1 |
file1underDir1.txt |
>>> import glob |
# The * denotes one or more characters |
>>> glob.glob('*.txt') # matches files with extension 'txt' |
['1ab.txt', 'a2.txt', 'a2b.txt', 'abc.txt', 'def.txt'] |
>>> glob.glob('*.doc*') # matches files with extension having the string 'doc' in it. |
['word.docx'] |
# The ? denotes a single character |
>>> glob.glob('??.txt') # matches text files with only two letters in its name. |
['a2.txt'] |
# [character-range] matches any character lying in the said range. |
>>> glob.glob('[a-z][0-9].txt') # matches two-character named text files with an alphabetic first character & numeric second character. |
['a2.txt'] |
>>> glob.glob('[a-z][0-9][a-z].txt') # matches three-character named text files with an alphabetic first character, numeric second character & an alphabetic third character. |
['a2b.txt'] |
# The '**' pattern matches any file, directory or subdirectory. |
>>> glob.glob('**') |
['1ab.txt', 'a2.txt', 'a2b.txt', 'abc.txt', 'def.txt', 'dir1', 'picture.jpg', 'python.py', 'word.docx'] |
See also:
- Python 101
- Object Oriented Python
- Design Patterns in Python
- 50+ Handy Standard Library Modules
- 60+ Handy Third Library Modules
- 50+ Tips & Tricks for Python Developers
- 50+ Know-How(s) Every Pythonista Must Know
