recursive searching with pathlib - python

Question

Say I have these files

/home/user/one/two/abc.txt
/home/user/one/three/def.txt
/home/user/one/four/ghi.txt

I'm trying to find ghi.txt recursively using the pathlib module. I tried:

p = '/home/user/'
f = Path(p).rglob(*i.txt)

but the only way I can get the filename is by using a list comprehension:

file = [str(i) for i in f]

which actually only works once. Re-running the command above returns an empty list.

I decided to learn pathlib because apparently it's what is recommended by the community, but isn't:

file = glob.glob(os.path.join(p,'**/*i.txt'),recursive=True)

much more straightforward?

So apparently you have found two ways to solve your problem of which you prefer one. What is your question? — mkrieger1, Jan 09 '20 at 20:15
It only works once presumably because `rglob()` returns a generator which gets exhausted by your comprehension. `f = tuple(Path(p).rglob(*i.txt))` would let you loop over it multiple times if you need to do that for some reason — berardig, Jan 09 '20 at 20:32

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 09 '20 at 21:27

You already have a solution.

Not sure if I read the requirements correctly but I have posted the answer with the following assumptions.

PathListPrefix is the starting path beneath which you want to search all files. In your case it might be '/home/user'
FileName is the name of the file that you are looking for. In your case it is 'ghi.txt'
You are not expecting more than one match.
Something other than pathlib modules has to be tried.

As far as straightforward solution is concerned I am not sure about that either. However the below solution is what I could think of using os module.

import os
PathListPrefix = '/home/user/'
FileName = 'ghi.txt'

def Search(StartingPath, FileNameToSearch):
    root, ext = os.path.splitext(StartingPath)
    FileName = os.path.split(root)[1]
    if FileName+ext == FileNameToSearch:
        return True
    return False

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(PathListPrefix):
    Path = root
    for eachfile in files:
        SearchPath = os.path.join(Path,eachfile)
        Found = Search(SearchPath, FileName)
        if Found:
            print(Path, FileName)
            break

The code is definitely having many many more lines than yours. So it is not as compact as yours.

recursive searching with pathlib - python

1 Answers1