Get name of file from directory into variable

[loial]

In a unix shell script I can do something like this to look in a
directory and get the name of a file or files into a variable :

MYFILE=`ls /home/mydir/JOHN*.xml`


Can I do this in one line in python?

 

[Alex Willmer]

In a unix shell script I can do something like this to look in a
directory and get the name of a file or files into a variable :

MYFILE=`ls /home/mydir/JOHN*.xml`

Can I do this in one line in python?

Depends if you count imports.

import glob
my_files = glob.glob('/home/mydir/JOHN*.xml')

Regards, Alex

 

[Matteo Landi]

I suggest you to take a look at walk function inside the os module
[1]; IIRC, on the list you would find a discussion on how to create a
wrapper for os.walk with support for filters or wildcards.

Regards.

[1] http://docs.python.org/library/os.html?highlight=os.walk#os.walk

 

[loial]

Depends if you count imports.

import glob
my_files = glob.glob('/home/mydir/JOHN*.xml')

Regards, Alex

Cheers

 

[Rory Campbell-Lange]

import glob
my_files = glob.glob('/home/mydir/JOHN*.xml')

import os; my_files = [f for f in os.listdir('/home/mydir/') if 'JOHN' in f and 'xml' in f]

But in fact glob uses os.listdir and fnmatch.fnmatch functions
internally, so is definitely the way to go.

http://docs.python.org/library/glob.html

 

[Matteo Landi]

Ops I miss the "one line" request, so my previous answer was definitely OT.

glob seems to be your solution.

import glob
my_files = glob.glob('/home/mydir/JOHN*.xml')

import os; my_files = [f for f in os.listdir('/home/mydir/') if 'JOHN' in f and 'xml' in f]

But in fact glob uses os.listdir and fnmatch.fnmatch functions
internally, so is definitely the way to go.

http://docs.python.org/library/glob.html

 

[Steven W. Orr]

In a unix shell script I can do something like this to look in a
directory and get the name of a file or files into a variable :

MYFILE=`ls /home/mydir/JOHN*.xml`


Can I do this in one line in python?

Sorry, but I just can't help myself.

Yeah, it's one shell line, but why the extra process, setup of pipes,
teardown, and all the rest when you can just say

MYFILE=/home/mydir/JOHN*.xml

After all, your way just starts a subshell which runs ls in a grandchild
process and creates a pipe to read back what the subshell writes. All the
subhell does is to run ls on what the shell globs. And without any options to
the ls command, you're just as well off by using echo instead of ls.

MYFILE=`echo /home/mydir/JOHN*.xml`

Since echo is probably a builtin, you'd be creating a child but no grandchild.

Other than that, the use of glob in python answers your question well (unless
someone wants to write up how to do it in python by use of the subprocess
module along with the glob module...)

--
Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have .0.
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Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- 000
individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question?
steveo at syslang.net


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