List all Text Files in a Directory using Python

Need to list all text files in a directory using Python?

If so, you may use the following templates to list your files:

List all the text files in a directory:

import glob
import os

os.chdir(r'directory where the files are located')
my_files = glob.glob('*.txt')
print(my_files)

List the paths of the text files:

import glob

my_files_path = glob.glob(r'directory where the files are located\*.txt')
print(my_files_path)

In the next section, you’ll see an example with the steps to list all text files using Python.

Steps to List all Text Files in a Directory using Python

Step 1: Locate the directory that contains the text files

For example, let’s suppose that the following 2 text files are stored in a folder called Test:

Step 2: Capture the path where the text files are stored

Next, capture the path of the directory where the text files are stored.

For our example, the path where the 2 files are stored is as follows:

C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test

You’ll need to modify the path to reflect the location where the text files are stored on your computer.

Step 3: List all text files in a directory using Python

To list all the text files in a directory using Python, you’ll need to import the glob and os packages.

You can then use the following template to list your text files:

import glob
import os

os.chdir(r'directory where the files are located')
my_files = glob.glob('*.txt')
print(my_files)

And for our example, this is the complete Python code to list the text files:

import glob
import os

os.chdir(r'C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test')
my_files = glob.glob('*.txt')
print(my_files)

Run the code (adjusted to your path) and you’ll see the list of the text files:

['New Products.txt', 'Old Products.txt']

Don’t forget to place “r” before the path to avoid the following error in Python:

(unicode error) ‘unicodeescape’ codec can’t decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape

Optional Step: List the paths of the text files

What if you want to get a list of the paths of your text files?

If that’s the case, you may use the following template:

import glob

my_files_path = glob.glob(r'directory where the files are located\*.txt')
print(my_files_path)

And for our example:

import glob

my_files_path = glob.glob(r'C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\Test\*.txt')
print(my_files_path)

These are the paths for our example:

['C:\\Users\\Ron\\Desktop\\Test\\New Products.txt', 
'C:\\Users\\Ron\\Desktop\\Test\\Old Products.txt']