[python] Unzipping files in Python

I read through the zipfile documentation, but couldn't understand how to unzip a file, only how to zip a file. How do I unzip all the contents of a zip file into the same directory?

This question is related to python zip unzip zipfile

The answer is


from zipfile import ZipFile
ZipFile("YOURZIP.zip").extractall("YOUR_DESTINATION_DIRECTORY")

The directory where you will extract your files doesn't need to exist before, you name it at this moment

YOURZIP.zip is the name of the zip if your project is in the same directory. If not, use the PATH i.e : C://....//YOURZIP.zip

Think to escape the / by an other / in the PATH If you have a permission denied try to launch your ide (i.e: Anaconda) as administrator

YOUR_DESTINATION_DIRECTORY will be created in the same directory than your project


If you want to do it in shell, instead of writing code.

 python3 -m zipfile -e myfiles.zip myfiles/

myfiles.zip is the zip archive and myfiles is the path to extract the files.


import os 
zip_file_path = "C:\AA\BB"
file_list = os.listdir(path)
abs_path = []
for a in file_list:
    x = zip_file_path+'\\'+a
    print x
    abs_path.append(x)
for f in abs_path:
    zip=zipfile.ZipFile(f)
    zip.extractall(zip_file_path)

This does not contain validation for the file if its not zip. If the folder contains non .zip file it will fail.


zipfile is a somewhat low-level library. Unless you need the specifics that it provides, you can get away with shutil's higher-level functions make_archive and unpack_archive.

make_archive is already described in this answer. As for unpack_archive:

import shutil
shutil.unpack_archive(filename, extract_dir)

unpack_archive detects the compression format automatically from the "extension" of filename (.zip, .tar.gz, etc), and so does make_archive. Also, filename and extract_dir can be any path-like objects (e.g. pathlib.Path instances) since Python 3.7.


try this :


import zipfile
def un_zipFiles(path):
    files=os.listdir(path)
    for file in files:
        if file.endswith('.zip'):
            filePath=path+'/'+file
            zip_file = zipfile.ZipFile(filePath)
            for names in zip_file.namelist():
                zip_file.extract(names,path)
            zip_file.close() 

path : unzip file's path


You can also import only ZipFile:

from zipfile import ZipFile
zf = ZipFile('path_to_file/file.zip', 'r')
zf.extractall('path_to_extract_folder')
zf.close()

Works in Python 2 and Python 3.


Use the extractall method, if you're using Python 2.6+

zip = ZipFile('file.zip')
zip.extractall()

If you are using Python 3.2 or later:

import zipfile
with zipfile.ZipFile("file.zip","r") as zip_ref:
    zip_ref.extractall("targetdir")

You dont need to use the close or try/catch with this as it uses the context manager construction.


Examples related to python

programming a servo thru a barometer Is there a way to view two blocks of code from the same file simultaneously in Sublime Text? python variable NameError Why my regexp for hyphenated words doesn't work? Comparing a variable with a string python not working when redirecting from bash script is it possible to add colors to python output? Get Public URL for File - Google Cloud Storage - App Engine (Python) Real time face detection OpenCV, Python xlrd.biffh.XLRDError: Excel xlsx file; not supported Could not load dynamic library 'cudart64_101.dll' on tensorflow CPU-only installation

Examples related to zip

Install php-zip on php 5.6 on Ubuntu 7-Zip command to create and extract a password-protected ZIP file on Windows? How are zlib, gzip and zip related? What do they have in common and how are they different? Read a zipped file as a pandas DataFrame Installing PHP Zip Extension How can you zip or unzip from the script using ONLY Windows' built-in capabilities? Creating a ZIP archive in memory using System.IO.Compression how to zip a folder itself using java Read Content from Files which are inside Zip file Need to ZIP an entire directory using Node.js

Examples related to unzip

Simple way to unzip a .zip file using zlib What is a good Java library to zip/unzip files? Unzip a file with php Downloading and unzipping a .zip file without writing to disk Unzipping files in Python How to unzip files programmatically in Android? Unzip All Files In A Directory Unzipping files Unzip files programmatically in .net java.util.zip.ZipException: error in opening zip file

Examples related to zipfile

Extract Google Drive zip from Google colab notebook Python: Open file in zip without temporarily extracting it Unzipping files in Python How to create a zip archive of a directory in Python?