How to get a list of files located in a folder using python ?

Examples of how to get a list of files located in a folder using python:

Using listdir() function

Lets assume a folder that contains:

dir01/
dir02/
fich01.txt
fich02.txt
fich02.txt

To get a list of files located in the current folder using python a first solution is to use os.listdir():

>>> import os
>>> list = os.listdir('.')
>>> print(list)
[dir01,dir02,fich01.txt,fich02.txt,fich03.txt]

However listdir() returns the files and the folders as well. To get the files only a solution is to use isfile() (see):

>>> FichList = [ f for f in os.listdir('.') if os.path.isfile(os.path.join('.',f)) ]
>>> print( FichList )
[fich01.txt,fich02.txt,fich03.txt]

Note: it is possible to define directly the path to the folder:

>>> list = os.listdir('path_to_folder')

Using glob() function

If the goal is to get all the files with a given extensions, for example .hdf:

./output/
    MYD06_L2.A2014038.2300.061.2018052102433.hdf
    MYD06_L2.A2014033.1930.061.2018052042944.hdf
    MYD06_L2.A2014046.2210.061.2018052112538.hdf
    MYD06_L2.A2014058.2235.061.2018052141003.hdf
    MYD06_L2.A2014037.2045.061.2018052094723.hdf
    MYD06_L2.A2014054.2125.061.2018052131042.hdf
    MYD06_L2.A2014034.2015.061.2018052062330.hdf
    MYD06_L2.A2014059.2010.061.2018052140044.hdf
    .
    .
    .

another solution is to use glob:

import glob

path_to_target = './outputs/modis/myd06/'

path_to_file_list = glob.glob(path_to_target + '*hdf' )

for path_to_file in path_to_file_list:
    print(path_to_file)

returns

./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014038.2300.061.2018052102433.hdf
./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014033.1930.061.2018052042944.hdf
./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014046.2210.061.2018052112538.hdf
./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014058.2235.061.2018052141003.hdf
./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014037.2045.061.2018052094723.hdf
./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014054.2125.061.2018052131042.hdf
./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014034.2015.061.2018052062330.hdf
./outputs/modis/myd06/MYD06_L2.A2014059.2010.061.2018052140044.hdf
.
.
.

To get only the file names we can use a list comprehension:

file_list = [i.split('/')[-1] for i in path_to_file_list]

print(file_list)

returns

['MYD06_L2.A2014038.2300.061.2018052102433.hdf', 'MYD06_L2.A2014033.1930.061.2018052042944.hdf', 'MYD06_L2.A2014046.2210.061.2018052112538.hdf', 'MYD06_L2.A2014058.2235.061.2018052141003.hdf', 'MYD06_L2.A2014037.2045.061.2018052094723.hdf', ... ]

Using walk() function

A third solution is to use the module os with walk. Lets consider the following case:

folder/
    abcd.txt
    data.txt
    record.txt
    sub_directory/
        data.txt
        folder_3/

To get a list of all the files:

>>> import os
>>> for path, subdirs, files in os.walk('folder'):
...     for name in files:
...             print(os.path.join(path, name))
... 
folder/abcd.txt
folder/data.txt
folder/record.txt
folder/sub_directory/data.txt

References