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

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