Getting the File Path for Files in Nested Folders using Python Pandas

Introduction

Python is a versatile and widely used programming language that offers various libraries to perform various tasks, including data manipulation and file operations. One of the most popular libraries in Python for data manipulation is pandas. In this blog post, we will explore how to get the file path for files in nested folders using python pandas.

Problem Statement

The problem statement provided by the user is: “I want to print the file path for the files and not directories located in nested folders using pandas. The path where the folder is located changes. The code should read the dynamic file path and print the path where the csv files are stored.”

In essence, the user wants to use python pandas to access a csv file that is located within a nested folder, and they want to get the full path of that csv file.

Using os.walk()

The solution provided in the Stack Overflow post suggests using the os library with the method walk. Here’s an explanation of how this works:

import os

# Specify the root directory
root_dir = '/path/to/root/dir'

# Use os.walk() to traverse the directory tree
for dir_path, _, file_names in os.walk(root_dir):
    # Iterate over each file name in the current directory
    for file_name in file_names:
        if file_name.endswith('.csv'):  # Check if it's a csv file
            # Get the full path of the csv file
            file_path = os.path.join(dir_path, file_name)
            print(file_path)  # Print the file path

In this code snippet:

1. We import the os library.
2. We specify the root directory using the variable root_dir.
3. We use os.walk() to traverse the directory tree starting from the specified root directory.
4. Inside the loop, we iterate over each file name in the current directory.
5. We check if the file has a .csv extension.
6. If it’s a csv file, we get its full path using os.path.join() and print it.

Explanation

The os.walk() method generates the file names in a directory tree by walking either top-down or bottom-up. The for dir_path, _, file_names in os.walk(root_dir): line iterates over each directory in the specified root directory. The _ variable represents the subdirectories within that directory.

By using if file_name.endswith('.csv'), we filter out non-csv files and focus on csv files only.

The os.path.join() function is used to join the directory path with the file name, resulting in a full path of the csv file. Finally, we print this full path using print(file_path).

Example

Here’s an example of how to use this code:

import os

root_dir = '/path/to/root/dir'

for dir_path, _, file_names in os.walk(root_dir):
    for file_name in file_names:
        if file_name.endswith('.csv'):
            file_path = os.path.join(dir_path, file_name)
            print(file_path)

Replace '/path/to/root/dir' with the actual path of your root directory.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we explored how to get the file path for files in nested folders using python pandas. We used the os library and its method walk() to traverse the directory tree and find csv files.

We provided a step-by-step guide on how to use this approach and demonstrated an example code snippet that does exactly that.

By following these steps, you can write your own Python script to get the file path for files in nested folders using python pandas.

Last modified on 2025-01-05