A Better Way To List Files In A Directory In Python

This is the function to use:

Code

import os
import glob


def list_dir(root_dir, *, sub_dir=''):
      return_value = []
      root_dir_full = os.path.realpath(os.path.join(root_dir))
      dir_to_process = os.path.join(root_dir_full, sub_dir)
      file_list = [
          file for file in glob.glob(f"{dir_to_process}/*") if os.path.isfile(file)
      ]
      for file in file_list:
           name_with_extension = os.path.basename(file)
           name_without_extension = os.path.splitext(name_with_extension)[0]
           extension = os.path.splitext(name_with_extension)[1].replace('.', '')
           return_value.append(
               {
                   "root_dir": root_dir_full,
                   "sub_dir": sub_dir,
                   "name_with_extension": name_with_extension,
                   "name_without_extension": name_without_extension,
                   "extension": extension,
                   "full_path": file
               }
           )
           sub_dir_list = [
               directory for directory in glob.glob(
                  f"{dir_to_process}/*"
              ) if os.path.isdir(directory)
           ]
           for sub_dir_full_path in sub_dir_list:
               base_sub_dir = sub_dir_full_path.replace(f'{root_dir_full}/', '')
               tmp_list = list_dir(root_dir=root_dir_full, sub_dir=base_sub_dir)
               for item in tmp_list:
                   return_value.append(item)
      return return_value

Code

from pprint import pprint
  
  <<list_dir>>

  the_files = list_dir("/Users/alan/Desktop/yttest")

  pprint(the_files)

Results

[{'extension': 'html',
    'full_path': '/Users/alan/Desktop/yttest/index.html',
    'name_with_extension': 'index.html',
    'name_without_extension': 'index',
    'root_dir': '/Users/alan/Desktop/yttest',
    'sub_dir': ''}]

_NOTE: This is still a draft in terms of the prose, but the code is tested and working. Still need to deal with hidden files though. Also need to set a flag to not go recursive_

Getting a list of files always feels like a pain. I wrote a JavaScript function a while ago to make it easier. It returns an array with details of the files.

I made a python version that does the same thing. The output look something like this:

Code

[
  {
    'extension': 'txt',
    'full_path': '/Users/alan/list-dir-via-walk/samples/3/a.txt',
    'name_with_extension': 'a.txt',
    'name_without_extension': 'a',
    'root_dir': '/Users/alan/list-dir-via-walk/samples/3',
    'sub_dir': ''
  },
 {
    'extension': 'txt',
    'full_path': '/Users/alan/list-dir-via-walk/samples/3/3_lower_1/b.txt',
    'name_with_extension': 'b.txt',
    'name_without_extension': 'b',
    'root_dir': '/Users/alan/list-dir-via-walk/samples/3',
    'sub_dir': '3_lower_1'
  },
  {
    'extension': 'txt',
    'full_path': '/Users/alan/list-dir-via-walk/samples/3/3_lower_1/3_lower_2/c.txt',
    'name_with_extension': 'c.txt',
    'name_without_extension': 'c',
    'root_dir': '/Users/alan/list-dir-via-walk/samples/3',
    'sub_dir': '3_lower_1/3_lower_2'
  }
]

That makes it easy to get to individual files by name or path, with or without extension.

Here's the code