How to find the smallest file in a directory in Python

Sometime while creating a program or writing a script in Python we need to find the largest file in a current directory. This is very simple task and can done by running a following script:

import os

files = os.listdir(".")

smallest_file_size = 10000
smallest_file = ""

for file in files:
    if os.path.isfile(file):
        size = os.path.getsize(file)
        if size <  smallest_file_size:
            smallest_file_size = size
            smallest_file = file

print("the smallest file in current directory has filename "+smallest_file+ " and size: "+str(smallest_file_size)+" bytes.")

What does that code?

First, we are making a list of files in a current directory using os module. In order to understand, what does further code, we have to check, what kind of object we get by running os.listdir() command.

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Written by Administrator on Sunday May 17, 2020

How to find the largest file in a directory in Python

Sometime while creating a program or writing a script in Python we need to find the largest file in a current directory. This is very simple task and can done by running a following script:

import os

files = os.listdir(".")

largest_file_size = 0
largest_file = ""

for file in files:
    if os.path.isfile(file):
        size = os.path.getsize(file)
            if size <  largest_file_size:
                largest_file_size = size
                largest_file = file

print("largest file in current directory has filename "+largest_file+ " and size: "+str(largest_file_size)+" bytes.")

Output in my case:

dima@linux-zsrx:~/python> ls -l
total 24
-rw-r--r-- 1 dima users 2036 May 17 16:29 dics.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 dima users  405 May 18 03:40 largest_file_in_directory.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 dima users  109 May 17 17:06 levyi
-rw-r--r-- 1 dima users  680 May 17 19:00 levyi.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 dima users  125 May 17 19:33 test01.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 dima users  241 May 18 00:33 translitgeo.py
dima@linux-zsrx:~/python> python smallest_file_in_directory.py 
the smallest file in current directory has filename levyi and size: 109 bytes.

What does that code?

First, we are making a list of files in a current directory using os module. In order to understand, what does further code, we have to check, what kind of object we get by running os.listdir() command.

Normally we have to check, if chosen item is directory or file, but we know, that directory link cannot be the biggest item, that's why we dont't have to check it.

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Written by Administrator on Sunday May 17, 2020

How to count files in a current directory in Python?

In order to count files in current directory (where your python script is located), you can run following code:

import os
files = [f for f in os.listdir('.') if os.path.isfile(f)]

number_of_files = 0
for f in files:
    number_of_files += 1

print(number_of_files)

In order to show, how many files located in currect directory, I've used linux command ls. And then I started python script to show, how it counts the number of files in directory.

In definition of "files" variable you can see several python commands, combined into one row: os.listdir() provides the list of files in location you provide (in our case: '.' as a current directory), then we have to be sure, that we count only files and not sub-directories. To do that we have to loop files object and count it.

This is output:

ls
dics.py  files.py  levyi  levyi.py  test01.py  translitgeo.py

python files.py
6

Keep in mind, that files is a list. In case you don't know, which type is a variable you create, you can use type method and then check in official Python documentation, how to work with it. In our case we can check it very easy:

import os
files = [f for f in os.listdir('.') if os.path.isfile(f)]

print(type(files))

and get following output:

<type 'list'>

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Written by Administrator on Sunday May 17, 2020

Print current directory path in Python

In order to print current directory path in Python (meaning, directory, where a python script is located), you have to import os module and then run a following script:

dir_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
print(dir_path)

os.path.dirname is defining the current path, where your python script is stored and second line prints it into command line (terminal).

Output:

dima@linux-zsrx:~/python> python files.py
/home/dima/python
dima@linux-zsrx:~/python> 

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Written by Administrator on Sunday May 17, 2020