Is it possible to create a python script that looks for files in a directory on a given time daily?

Question

So basically, I'm creating a directory that allows users to put csv files in there. But I want to create python script that would look in that folder everyday at a given time (lets say noon) and pick up the latest file that was placed in there if it's not over a day old. But I'm not sure if that's possible.

Its this chunk of code that I would like to run if it the app finds a new file in the desired directory:

def better_Match(results, best_percent = "Will need to get the match %"):
    result = {}
    result_list = [{item.name:item.text for item in result} for result in results]
    if result_list:
        score_list = [float(item['score']) for item in result_list]
        match_index = max(enumerate(score_list),key=lambda x: x[1])[0]
        logger.debug('MRCs:{}, Chosen MRC:{}'.format(score_list,score_list[match_index]))
        logger.debug(result_list[match_index])
        above_threshold = float(result_list[match_index]['score']) >= float(best_percent)
        if above_threshold:
            result = result_list[match_index]
    return result

def clean_plate_code(platecode):
    return str(platecode).lstrip('0').zfill(5)[:5]

def re_ch(file_path, orig_data, return_columns = ['ex_opbin']):
    list_of_chunk_files = list(file_path.glob('*.csv'))
    cb_ch = [pd.read_csv(f, sep=None, dtype=object, engine='python') for f in tqdm(list_of_chunk_files, desc='Combining ch', unit='chunk')]
    cb_ch = pd.concat(cb_ch)
    shared_columns = [column_name.replace('req_','') for column_name in cb_ch.columns if column_name.startswith('req_')]
    cb_ch.columns = cb_ch.columns.str.replace("req_", "")
    return_columns = return_columns + shared_columns
    cb_ch = cb_ch[return_columns]
    for column in shared_columns:
        cb_ch[column] = cb_ch[column].astype(str)
        orig_data[column] = orig_data[column].astype(str)
    final= orig_data.merge(cb_ch, how='left', on=shared_columns)
    return final

keeping any script open for a really long time (especially if you're thinking about using `time.sleep()`) is probably not a good idea — M Z, Jul 24 '20 at 17:50
You can take a look at this : https://stackoverflow.com/a/16786600/8228122 — Luke B, Jul 24 '20 at 17:51

DD_N0p · Answer 1 · 2020-07-24T17:51:41.417

0

For running script at certain time:

You can use cron for linux. In windows you can use windows scheduler

Here is an example for getting latest file in directory

files = os.listdir(output_folder)
files = [os.path.join(output_folder, file) for file in files]
files = [file for file in files if os.path.isfile(file)]
latest_file = max(files, key=os.path.getctime)

edited Jul 24 '20 at 17:51

answered Jul 24 '20 at 17:50

DD_N0p

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this does not answer the part of OP's question where they want it to run at a particular time every day – M Z Jul 24 '20 at 17:51

JaniniRami · Answer 2 · 2020-07-24T18:20:37.763

This will do the job!

import os
import time
import threading
import pandas as pd

DIR_PATH = 'DIR_PATH_HERE'

def create_csv_file():
    # create files.csv file that will contains all the current files
    # This will run for one time only
    if not os.path.exists('files.csv'):
        list_of_files = os.listdir(DIR_PATH )
        list_of_files.append('files.csv')
        pd.DataFrame({'files':list_of_files}).to_csv('files.csv')
    else:
        None


def check_for_new_files():
    create_csv_file()
    files = pd.read_csv('files.csv')
    list_of_files = os.listdir(DIR_PATH )
    if len(files.files) != len(list_of_files):
        print('New file added')
        #do what you want
        #save your excel with the name sample.xslx
        #append your excel into list of files and get the set so you will not have the sample.xlsx twice if run again

        list_of_files.append('sample.xslx')
        list_of_files=list(set(list_of_files))

        #save again the curent list of files
        pd.DataFrame({'files':list_of_files}).to_csv('files.csv')
        print('Finished for the day!')



ticker = threading.Event()
# Run the program every 86400 seconds = 24h
while not ticker.wait(86400):
    check_for_new_files()

It basically uses threading to check for new files every 86400s which is 24h, and saves all the current files in a directory where the py file is in and checks for new files that does not exist in the csv file and append them to the files.csv file every day.

Thanks for this, I have some of the code, but I don't think I asked the second part of the question correctly. With the new csv file that in the selected directoryI would be opening it and running a different script to dump into a database(I have the code written for this). Does that make more sense? — UndefinedKid01, Jul 24 '20 at 18:28
Provide the code you are wrote so me and others can understand more clearly about what function do you want to add to it. — JaniniRami, Jul 24 '20 at 18:35
Yeah I can do that. I'm running it as an executable that I'm working on changing to a web API. — UndefinedKid01, Jul 24 '20 at 19:03

Is it possible to create a python script that looks for files in a directory on a given time daily?

2 Answers2