CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonglob
rockymonkey555
rockymonkey555

Reputation: 8340

Find the newest file in a directory in python

I'm trying to find the newest file in a directory. However, max() is returning a "max() arg is empty sequence error" I've even tried passing in the exact path instead of the path variable. 

def function(path):
   max(glob.iglob('path\*.map'), key=os.path.getctime)
   ...

Any ideas?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2178

Answers (2)

mhawke
mhawke

Reputation: 87064

In your function, path is passed in as an argument, however, your glob spec is using the literal string 'path\*.map'. So, unless you actually have a directory named path that contains .map files, iglob() will return an empty list, and max() will raise the exception that you see.

Instead you should substitute the value of the path variable into the glob spec string:

glob.iglob(r'{}\*.map'.format(path))

Now, assuming that the path and .map files do exist, you can find the most recent.

Also, you should use os.path.join() to construct the glob spec. Your function would then look like this:

def most_recent_map_file(path):
    glob_pattern = os.path.join(path, '*.map')
    return max(glob.iglob(glob_pattern), key=os.path.getctime)

os.path.join() is preferable because it will handle the different path separators of different OSes - \ for Windows, / for *nix.

Upvotes: 3

YOBA
YOBA

Reputation: 2807

Your code works perfectly:

Are you under windows?

Otherwise it's / and not \

max(glob.iglob('path/*.map'), key=os.path.getctime)

and make sure you are under the right path.

Upvotes: -1

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