CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonfileos.path
lydiash
lydiash

Reputation: 85

How do I check if a file exists with * in python?

I'm trying to check if a file exists so I can read it. The kicker is I don't know what the number on the file is. Only one file should exist at a time, but the name updates as I write to the file (in another part of the code) so I don't know exactly what the number will be when this chunk of code executes.

N=0
if os.path.exists('*somefile.txt'): #if the file exists, read it
    print("found Nsomefile.txt")
    filename = '*somefile.txt'
    something=np.loadtxt(filename)
    N = int(filename.split('s')[0]) #save the N from the filename
else: #otherise, preallocate memory for something
    something = np.empty((x,y))  
print(N,"of some thing")

In my directory I can see the file there ('32somefile.txt') but the code still prints 0 of some thing

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1964

Answers (3)

aikipooh
aikipooh

Reputation: 243

You can use glob() from pathlib.

https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/pathlib.html#pathlib.Path.glob

Upvotes: 4

lydiash
lydiash

Reputation: 85

Thanks everyone! I forgot about glob. (I use it in another part of my code (facepalm)). It now looks like:

import numpy as np
from glob import glob
N=0
if glob('*somefile.txt'): #if the file exists, read it
    print("found Nsomefile.txt")
    filename = glob('*somefile.txt')[0]
    something=np.loadtxt(filename)
    N = int(filename.split('s')[0]) #save the N from the filename
else: #otherise, preallocate memory for something
    something = np.empty((x,y))  
print(N,"of some thing")

which outputs 

found Nsomefile.txt
32 of some thing

Upvotes: 0

Audemed
Audemed

Reputation: 281

You should probably use glob rather than os functions here.

Glob also supports * characters, so it should do fine for your use case.

Upvotes: 2

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