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How to do a recursive sub-folder search and return files in a list with Python?

Sometimes, we want to do a recursive sub-folder search and return files in a list with Python.

In this article, we’ll look at how to do a recursive sub-folder search and return files in a list with Python.

How to do a recursive sub-folder search and return files in a list with Python?

To do a recursive sub-folder search and return files in a list with Python, we can use glob.

For instance, we write

import os
from glob import glob

result = [y for x in os.walk(PATH) for y in glob(os.path.join(x[0], '*.txt'))]

to call os.walk to get the directories in PATH.

And then we loop through then files in y to get the files with the txt extension in the directory with

glob(os.path.join(x[0], '*.txt')

os.walk will recursively traverse child directories in PATH.

Conclusion

To do a recursive sub-folder search and return files in a list with Python, we can use glob.

Posted in Python, Python Answers