Detailed explanation of different methods of Python implementing arbitrary file search tool

summary

In daily development and operation and maintenance work, it is often necessary to find specific types of files or files with specific patterns. Using command line tools such as find, grep, etc. can meet the needs, but sometimes we want to use programming languages ​​to achieve more flexible and customizable solutions. This article will introduce how to write a simple file lookup tool in Python that supports wildcard matching and can recursively find files in a specified directory. We will provide two different implementations: one based on() and fnmatch, and the other based on glob module.

Environmental preparation

Make sure you have the Python version installed. If you have not installed it yet, please visit the Python official website to download and install the latest stable version.

Implementation method one: Use () and fnmatch

Implementation ideas

Import the necessary libraries: We will use the os module to traverse the directory structure and use the fnmatch module to perform wildcard matching.

Definition function: Create a function named find_files_with_os_walk, which receives two parameters: one is the target directory path and the other is the file name pattern containing wildcard characters.

Recursively traverse directory: traverse a given directory and its subdirectories through the () method.

Match filenames: For each file, use() to check whether its name matches the provided pattern.

Return result: Store all file paths that meet the criteria in a list and finally return the list.

Code implementation

import os
import fnmatch

def find_files_with_os_walk(directory, pattern):
    """
    Find files that match the given pattern in the specified directory and its subdirectories。
    
    parameter:
        directory (str): The root directory path to search。
        pattern (str): File name mode，Support wildcard characters * and ?。
        
    return:
        list: List of file paths that meet the criteria。
    """
    matched_files = []
    
    # traverse directory tree    for root, dirs, files in (directory):
        for basename in files:
            if (basename, pattern):
                filename = (root, basename)
                matched_files.append(filename)
                
    return matched_files

# Example usageif __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys
    
    if len() != 3:
        print("Usage: python find_files.py <directory> <pattern>")
        (1)
    
    directory = [1]
    pattern = [2]
    
    results = find_files_with_os_walk(directory, pattern)
    for result in results:
        print(f'The file name found：{()[-1]}', f'Complete path：{result}')

Implementation method 2: Use glob module

Implementation ideas

Import the necessary libraries: We will use the glob module, which can directly handle wildcard pattern, simplifying the file search process.

Definition function: Create a function named find_files_with_glob, which receives two parameters: one is the target directory path and the other is the file name pattern containing wildcard characters.

Generate file path: Use the () method to generate a list of file paths that meet the conditions.

Return result: Return directly to the generated file path list.

Code implementation

import glob
import os


def find_files_with_glob(directory, pattern):
    """
    Find files that match the given pattern in the specified directory and its subdirectories。

    parameter:
        directory (str): The root directory path to search。
        pattern (str): File name mode，Support wildcard characters * and ?。

    return:
        list: List of file paths that meet the criteria。
    """
    # Combine directory paths and patterns into a complete path pattern    full_pattern = (directory, "**", pattern)

    # Use glob module to search    matched_files = (full_pattern, recursive=True)

    return matched_files


# Example usageif __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys

    if len() != 3:
        print("Usage: python find_files.py <directory> <pattern>")
        (1)

    directory = [1]
    pattern = [2]

    results = find_files_with_glob(directory, pattern)
    for result in results:
        print(f'The file name found：{()[-1]}', f'Complete path：{result}')

Instructions for use

After saving the above code as find_files.py, you need to provide two parameters when running this script on the command line: one is the target directory path you want to search for, and the other is the file name pattern you want to find (such as *.txt). For example:

$ python find_files.py /path/to/search "*.log"

This will look for all files with the extension .log in the /path/to/search directory and all its subdirectories and print out their full paths.

Summarize

Through this article, we learn two ways to quickly build wildcard file search tools using Python built-in libraries:

• Use() and fnmatch: suitable for situations where finer granularity control is required, such as filtering file types, excluding certain directories, etc.
• Use glob module: simple and intuitive, suitable for most regular file search tasks.

These two methods are not only simple and easy to understand, but also very flexible, and can further expand functionality according to actual needs, such as adding multi-threading support to improve efficiency, or integrating into larger applications as part of the functionality.

This is the introduction to this article about the different methods of Python implementing arbitrary file search tools. For more related Python file search content, please search for my previous articles or continue browsing the related articles below. I hope everyone will support me in the future!