CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpandasoperating-system
Shcoder
Shcoder

Reputation: 27

Create folder structures using Python

I am looking for support on creating a folder structure in Python. I have basic Python knowledge but trying to see how it can automate some mundane tasks.

I have a xlxs with a list of 1000 names in the same directory as my Python script called names.xlxs. These are the headings it has.

enter image description here

I would like to create a folder,with a concatenation of the name and tutor group, for each person on the list, within that folder I would also like the following sub-folders.

AoW
CSP
Folder A
Folder B
Folder C
Folder D
Folder E
Folder F

Can someone point me in the right direction of the best way to do this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2253

Answers (3)

Umar.H
Umar.H

Reputation: 23099

Let's try pathlib which makes working with the file system a breeze. Note, you'll need Python 3.5+ to use it.

Setup

import pandas as pd
from pathlib import Path 


df = pd.DataFrame({'Name' : 'Joe Bloggs', 'Tutor Group' : '6T1'},index=[0])


sub_folders = ['AoW',
 'CSP',
 'Folder A',
 'Folder B',
 'Folder C',
 'Folder D',
 'Folder E',
 'Folder F']

Assuming you know how to read in an Excel file into a dataframe and it vaguely resembles this:

         Name Tutor Group
0  Joe Bloggs         6T1

We can use a function that takes in a number of arguments to write out paths at a target directory.

We can also check for path that we are creating if it exists or not, if not we can create it, if it does we pass over it.

def create_folders(dataframe, agg_columns, sub_folders,root_path):
    p = Path(root_path)
    
    series = dataframe[agg_columns].agg('-'.join,1)
    
    for person in series:
        trg_path = p.joinpath(person)
        if not trg_path.is_dir():
            trg_path.mkdir(parents=True)
        
        for path in sub_folders:
            if not trg_path.joinpath(path).is_dir():
                trg_path.joinpath(path).mkdir()

In Usage

create_folders(df,['Name','Tutor Group'], sub_folders, 'source')

enter image description here

Considerations

Personally, I would also use this as a chance to learn how login works if you don't already know. So that when you create these directories you have a log of what was created and when if any issues arise.

Upvotes: 1

sagmansercan
sagmansercan

Reputation: 101

I work on an csv example instead of an excel file, but can be modified for that purpose if desired.

for an input file:

Name,Tutor Group
A,1
B,1
C,1
D,2
E,2
  • get current working directory for py file and read file with pandas
import pandas as pd
import os

dirname = os.path.dirname(__file__)
file = f"{dirname}/input.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(file, sep=",")
  • Then obtain the person list for each group
group_person_dict = df.groupby("Tutor Group")["Name"].apply(list).to_dict()

# {
#   "1": ["A", "B", "C"],
#   "2": ["D","E"]
# }
  • Define constant sub-folder set
  • iterate over dictionaries, build path strings and create if not exists
# define dub folders
sub_folder_set = {
    "AoW",
    "CSP",
    "Folder A",
    "Folder B",
    "Folder C",
    "Folder D",
    "Folder F",
    "Folder E",
}

for group, people in group_person_dict.items():
    g = str(group)
    for p in people:
        # obtain name+group concatanated string
        folder_name = f"TutorGroup={g}-Person={p}"
        # build main directory path, create if not exists
        dir_path = os.path.join(dirname, folder_name)
        if not os.path.exists(dir_path):
            os.mkdir(dir_path)

        # iterate ovr subfolders
        for sbf in sub_folder_set:
            # obtain sub directory path, create if not exists
            subdir_path = os.path.join(dir_path, sbf)
            if not os.path.exists(subdir_path):
                os.mkdir(subdir_path)

output: enter image description here

Upvotes: 0

drompix
drompix

Reputation: 566

To read the xlxs file you can consider using pandas library. After you're done with reading your file into pandas DataFrame, you can iterate through the rows and pick name and tutor group. After this step is completed, you can take built-in python lib os and use os.makedir(path/to/dir/new_dir_name) to create directory at specific path. Where directory new_dir_name would be a concatenation of values obtained for each DataFrame row.

Upvotes: 0

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