Get a list of files in a folder without changing directory

Question

I have a following problem. My .py script is saved in "C:\Users\vojtam\Desktop\my_script". I would like to get a list of all files that are saved in "C:\Users\vojtam\Desktop\my_folder". I know that I can use:

os.chdir("C:\Users\vojtam\Desktop\my_folder")
list_of_files = os.listdir()

But is it possible without the command os.chdir? Thanks a lot!

Yes, os.listdir() accepts a param, path. you can give absolute path. — Hari Kishore, Jun 28 '21 at 14:55

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 28 '21 at 14:40

help is often helpful in such case, if you do in python terminal help(os.listdir) it will inform you

listdir(path=None)
    Return a list containing the names of the files in the directory.

    path can be specified as either str, bytes, or a path-like object.  If path is bytes,
      the filenames returned will also be bytes; in all other circumstances
      the filenames returned will be str.
    If path is None, uses the path='.'.

and so on, therfore in this case just do

import os
list_of_files = os.listdir("C:\Users\vojtam\Desktop\my_folder")

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 28 '21 at 14:34

1

You can use glob:

import glob

list_of_files = glob.glob("C:\Users\vojtam\Desktop\my_folder\*")

answered Jun 28 '21 at 14:34

enzo

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Get a list of files in a folder without changing directory

2 Answers2