CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonstringfile
user1357015
user1357015

Reputation: 11686

finding a file name from a substring

I have a list of my filenames that I've saved as follows:

filelist = os.listdir(mypath)

Now, suppose one of my files is something like "KRAS_P01446_3GFT_SOMETHING_SOMETHING.txt".

However, all I know ahead of time is that I have a file called "KRAS_P01446_3GFT_*". How can I get the full file name from file list using just "KRAS_P01446_3GFT_*"?

As a simpler example, I've made the following:

mylist = ["hi_there", "bye_there","hello_there"]

Suppose I had the string "hi". How would I make it return mylist[0] = "hi_there".

Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3080

Answers (4)

kojiro
kojiro

Reputation: 77107

In the first example, you could just use the glob module:

import glob
import os
print '\n'.join(glob.iglob(os.path.join(mypath, "KRAS_P01446_3GFT_*")))

Do this instead of os.listdir.

The second example seems tenuously related to the first (X-Y problem?), but here's an implementation:

mylist = ["hi_there", "bye_there","hello_there"]
print '\n'.join(s for s in mylist if s.startswith("hi"))

Upvotes: 2

Akshet
Akshet

Reputation: 541

If the list is not very big, you can do a per item check like this.

def findMatchingFile (fileList, stringToMatch) :
    listOfMatchingFiles = []

    for file in fileList:
        if file.startswith(stringToMatch):
            listOfMatchingFiles.append(file)

    return listOfMatchingFiles

There are more "pythonic" way of doing this, but I prefer this as it is more readable.

Upvotes: 0

Mark Ransom
Mark Ransom

Reputation: 308196

mylist = ["hi_there", "bye_there","hello_there"]
partial = "hi"
[fullname for fullname in mylist if fullname.startswith(partial)]

Upvotes: 0

Tim Lesher
Tim Lesher

Reputation: 6441

If you mean "give me all filenames starting with some prefix", then this is simple:

[fname for fname in mylist if fname.startswith('hi')]

If you mean something more complex--for example, patterns like "some_*_file" matching "some_good_file" and "some_bad_file", then look at the regex module.

Upvotes: 0

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