How to rename a file using Python

Question

I want to change a.txt to b.kml.

Answer 1

As of Python 3.4 one can use the pathlib module to solve this.

If you happen to be on an older version, you can use the backported version found here

Let's assume you are not in the root path (just to add a bit of difficulty to it) you want to rename, and have to provide a full path, we can look at this:

some_path = 'a/b/c/the_file.extension'

So, you can take your path and create a Path object out of it:

from pathlib import Path
p = Path(some_path)

Just to provide some information around this object we have now, we can extract things out of it. For example, if for whatever reason we want to rename the file by modifying the filename from the_file to the_file_1, then we can get the filename part:

name_without_extension = p.stem

And still hold the extension in hand as well:

ext = p.suffix

We can perform our modification with a simple string manipulation:

Python 3.6 and greater make use of f-strings!

new_file_name = f"{name_without_extension}_1"

Otherwise:

new_file_name = "{}_{}".format(name_without_extension, 1)

And now we can perform our rename by calling the rename method on the path object we created and appending the ext to complete the proper rename structure we want:

p.rename(Path(p.parent, new_file_name + ext))

More shortly to showcase its simplicity:

Python 3.6+:

from pathlib import Path
p = Path(some_path)
p.rename(Path(p.parent, f"{p.stem}_1_{p.suffix}"))

Versions less than Python 3.6 use the string format method instead:

from pathlib import Path
p = Path(some_path)
p.rename(Path(p.parent, "{}_{}_{}".format(p.stem, 1, p.suffix)))

Answer 2

Use the Pathlib library's Path.rename instead of os.rename:

import pathlib
original_path = pathlib.Path('a.txt')
new_path = original_path.rename('b.kml')

The primary benefit is that you don't have to construct the absolute output path — you can just pass the new filename. A secondary benefit is that it keeps things uniform if all your paths are all already Pathlib objects.

Answer 3

Use os.rename:

import os

os.rename('a.txt', 'b.kml')

Usage:

os.rename('from.extension.whatever','to.another.extension')

Answer 4

How to change the first letter of filename in a directory:

import os
path = "/"

for file in os.listdir(path):
    os.rename(path + file, path + file.lower().capitalize())

then = os.listdir(path)
print(then)

Answer 5

Here is an example using pathlib only without touching os which changes the names of all files in a directory, based on a string replace operation without using also string concatenation:

from pathlib import Path

path = Path('/talend/studio/plugins/org.talend.designer.components.bigdata_7.3.1.20200214_1052\components/tMongoDB44Connection')

for p in path.glob("tMongoDBConnection*"):
    new_name = p.name.replace("tMongoDBConnection", "tMongoDB44Connection")
    new_name = p.parent/new_name
    p.rename(new_name)

Answer 6

As of Python version 3.3 and later, it is generally preferred to use os.replace instead of os.rename so FileExistsError is not raised if the destination file already exists.

assert os.path.isfile('old.txt')
assert os.path.isfile('new.txt')

os.rename('old.txt', 'new.txt')
# Raises FileExistsError
os.replace('old.txt', 'new.txt')
# Does not raise exception

assert not os.path.isfile('old.txt')
assert os.path.isfile('new.txt')

See the documentation.

Answer 7

One important point to note here, we should check if any files exists with the new filename.

suppose if b.kml file exists then renaming other file with the same filename leads to deletion of existing b.kml.

import os

if not os.path.exists('b.kml'):
    os.rename('a.txt','b.kml')

Answer 8

os.chdir(r"D:\Folder1\Folder2")
os.rename(src,dst)
#src and dst should be inside Folder2

Answer 9

Use os.rename. But you have to pass full path of both files to the function. If I have a file a.txt on my desktop so I will do and also I have to give full of renamed file too.

os.rename('C:\\Users\\Desktop\\a.txt', 'C:\\Users\\Desktop\\b.kml')

Answer 10

If you are Using Windows and you want to rename your 1000s of files in a folder then: You can use the below code. (Python3)

import os

path = os.chdir(input("Enter the path of the Your Image Folder :  ")) #Here put the path of your folder where your images are stored

image_name = input("Enter your Image name : ") #Here, enter the name you want your images to have

i = 0

for file in os.listdir(path):

    new_file_name = image_name+"_" + str(i) + ".jpg" #here you can change the extention of your renmamed file.
    os.rename(file,new_file_name)

    i = i + 1

input("Renamed all Images!!")

Answer 11

import shutil
import os

files = os.listdir("./pics/") 

for key in range(0, len(files)):
   print files[key]
   shutil.move("./pics/" + files[key],"./pics/img" + str(key) + ".jpeg")

This should do it. python 3+

Answer 12

import os
import re
from pathlib import Path

for f in os.listdir(training_data_dir2):
  for file in os.listdir( training_data_dir2 + '/' + f):
    oldfile= Path(training_data_dir2 + '/' + f + '/' + file)
    newfile = Path(training_data_dir2 + '/' + f + '/' + file[49:])
    p=oldfile
    p.rename(newfile)

Answer 13

import os

# Set the path
path = 'a\\b\\c'  
# save current working directory
saved_cwd = os.getcwd()
# change your cwd to the directory which contains files
os.chdir(path)
os.rename('a.txt', 'b.klm')
# moving back to the directory you were in 
os.chdir(saved_cwd)

Answer 14

os.rename(old, new)

This is found in the Python docs: http://docs.python.org/library/os.html

Answer 15

File may be inside a directory, in that case specify the path:

import os
old_file = os.path.join("directory", "a.txt")
new_file = os.path.join("directory", "b.kml")
os.rename(old_file, new_file)

Answer 16

You can use os.system to invoke terminal to accomplish the task:

os.system('mv oldfile newfile')

Answer 17

import shutil

shutil.move('a.txt', 'b.kml')

This will work to rename or move a file.