Automate selection of files with Python

Question

I'm coding an interface with Tkinter and I want to automate a task. The actual function opens a window that allows the user to select files (I specify the type of files. Then the paths of these files are retrieved from other functions to modify the files. Here is my actual function:

def get_path():  #return the path of the selected file(s)

    root = Tk()
    i= datetime.datetime.now()
    day = i.day
    month=i.month
    root.filename =  filedialog.askopenfilenames(initialdir = "Z:\SGI\SYNCBBG",title = "Select your files",filetypes = (("Fichier 1","f6365full_account_refresh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"),("Fichier 1","f6365icsh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"),("all files",".*")))
    root.withdraw()
    return (root.filename)

What I want is just to have a function that automatically retrieves all files of a type (that I specify) in two different directories. I did this, and the code runs and prints the result, but after that Python stops responding and there is a bug, so I have to close Python. Another thing is that I'm getting the name of the file, not the absolute path, but it's not the main problem:

def path_L2():

    os.chdir("Z:/SGI/SYNCBBG/L2/results/results")
    for file in glob.glob("f6365full_account_refresh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"):
        return file
    for file in glob.glob("f6365icsh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"):
        return file

def path_L3():

    os.chdir("Z:/SGI/SYNCBBG/L3/results/results")
    for file in glob.glob("f6365full_account_refresh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"):
        return file
    for file in glob.glob("f6365icsh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"):
        return file

paths=path_L2()
print(paths)

You should think carefully about what a `return` statement does in a function... — Scott Mermelstein, Apr 25 '18 at 15:38
Your functions just return the first file found, not a list of files. Also, its best not to `chdir` (that's global to the process). Use `os.path.join` to add the path to the glob string and you'll get a usable path to the file from the current directory. — tdelaney, Apr 25 '18 at 15:49
I don't see anything here that would cause the program to hang. Start adding print statements to loops in your code to see if one runs forever. — tdelaney, Apr 25 '18 at 15:49

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 25 '18 at 15:51

return will return immediately return from the function. In your case, you're returning the first result of your first glob statement in each function, and then exiting the function.

All you want to do is take the lists returned from glob and add them together. You want something like:

def path_L2():
    os.chdir("Z:/SGI/SYNCBBG/L2/results/results")
    return glob.glob("f6365full_account_refresh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1") + glob.glob("f6365icsh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1")

def path_L3():
    os.chdir("Z:/SGI/SYNCBBG/L3/results/results")
    return glob.glob("f6365full_account_refresh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1") + glob("f6365icsh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1")

I wouldn't use os.chdir, though - that actively changes your working directory. Also, since your two functions are equivalent except for one string, you should make one function that does all that work. (The point of using functions is to not have to repeat the same code over and over.) I would do the following. (I added some extra variables for the sake of neatness.)

def path_L(l_dir):
    path1 = "f6365full_account_refresh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"
    path2 = "f6365icsh*"+str(month)+str(day)+".1"
    glob_expr1 = os.path.join(l_dir, path1)
    glob_expr2 = os.path.join(l_dir, path2)

    return glob.glob(glob_expr1) + glob.glob(glob_expr2)

Then you can call path_L to get L2 with:

l2_paths = path_L("Z:/SGI/SYNCBBG/L2/results/results")
l3_paths = path_L("Z:/SGI/SYNCBBG/L3/results/results")

Automate selection of files with Python

1 Answers1