How do you get a directory listing sorted by creation date in python

Question

What is the best way to get a list of all files in a directory  sorted by date  created   modified   using python  on a windows machine

User · Answer

Here s a one-liner   import os import time from pprint import pprint  pprint   x 0   time ctime x 1  st ctime   for x in sorted   fn  os stat fn   for fn in os listdir        key   lambda x  x 1  st ctime      This calls os listdir   to get a list of the filenames  then calls os stat   for each one to get the creation time  then sorts against the creation time   Note that this method only calls os stat   once for each file  which will be more efficient than calling it for each comparison in a sort

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Here s my answer using glob without filter if you want to read files with a certain extension in date order  Python 3      dataset path   mydir      files   glob glob dataset path   morepath   extension      files sort key os path getmtime

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the shortest and best way       getmtime -- gt  sort by modified time   getctime -- gt  sort by created time  import glob os  lst files   glob glob    txt   lst files sort key os path getmtime  print   n  join lst files

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I ve done this in the past for a Python script to determine the last updated files in a directory    import glob import os  search dir     mydir     remove anything from the list that is not a file  directories  symlinks    thanks to J F  Sebastion for pointing out that the requirement was a list    of files  presumably not including directories    files   list filter os path isfile  glob glob search dir          files sort key lambda x  os path getmtime x     That should do what you re looking for based on file mtime   EDIT  Note that you can also use os listdir   in place of glob glob   if desired - the reason I used glob in my original code was that I was wanting to use glob to only search for files with a particular set of file extensions  which glob   was better suited to  To use listdir here s what it would look like    import os  search dir     mydir   os chdir search dir  files   filter os path isfile  os listdir search dir   files    os path join search dir  f  for f in files    add path to each file files sort key lambda x  os path getmtime x

User · Answer

Without changing directory   import os      path     path to files   name list   os listdir path  full list    os path join path i  for i in name list  time sorted list   sorted full list  key os path getmtime   print time sorted list    if you want just the filenames sorted  simply remove the dir from each sorted filename list     os path basename i  for i in time sorted list  print sorted filename list

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This was my version    import os  folder path   r D  Movies extra new dramas    your path os chdir folder path    make the path active x   sorted os listdir    key os path getctime     sorted using creation time  folder   0  for folder in range len x        print x folder     print all the foldername inside the folder path     folder    1

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Update  to sort dirpath s entries by modification date in Python 3   import os from pathlib import Path  paths   sorted Path dirpath  iterdir    key os path getmtime     put  Pygirl s answer here for greater visibility   If you already have a list of filenames files  then to sort it inplace by creation time on Windows   files sort key os path getctime    The list of files you could get  for example  using glob as shown in  Jay s answer     old answer Here s a more verbose version of  Greg Hewgill s answer  It is the most conforming to the question requirements  It makes a distinction between creation and modification dates  at least on Windows       usr bin env python from stat import S ISREG  ST CTIME  ST MODE import os  sys  time    path to the directory  relative or absolute  dirpath   sys argv 1  if len sys argv     2 else r       get all entries in the directory w  stats entries    os path join dirpath  fn  for fn in os listdir dirpath   entries     os stat path   path  for path in entries     leave only regular files  insert creation date entries     stat ST CTIME   path             for stat  path in entries if S ISREG stat ST MODE     NOTE  on Windows  ST CTIME  is a creation date     but on Unix it could be something else  NOTE  use  ST MTIME  to sort by a modification date  for cdate  path in sorted entries       print time ctime cdate   os path basename path    Example     python stat creation date py Thu Feb 11 13 31 07 2009 stat creation date py

User · Answer

Maybe you should use shell commands  In Unix Linux  find piped with sort will probably be able to do what you want

User · Answer

For completeness with os scandir  2x faster over pathlib    import os sorted os scandir   tmp test    key lambda d  d stat   st mtime

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Alex Coventry s answer will produce an exception if the file is a symlink to an unexistent file  the following code corrects that answer   import time import datetime sorted filter os path isfile  os listdir             key lambda p  os path exists p  and os stat p  st mtime or time mktime datetime now   timetuple      When the file doesn t exist  now   is used  and the symlink will go at the very end of the list

User · Answer

There is an os path getmtime function that gives the number of seconds since the epoch and should be faster than os stat   import os   os chdir directory  sorted filter os path isfile  os listdir        key os path getmtime

User · Answer

sorted filter os path isfile  os listdir             key lambda p  os stat p  st mtime    You could use os walk      next   -1  instead of filtering with os path isfile  but that leaves dead symlinks in the list  and os stat will fail on them

User · Answer

Turns out os listdir sorts by last modified but in reverse so you can do  import os last modified os listdir     -1

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from pathlib import Path import os  sorted Path       iterdir    key lambda t  t stat   st mtime    or  sorted Path       iterdir    key os path getmtime    or  sorted os scandir        key lambda t  t stat   st mtime    where m time is modified time

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Here s my version   def getfiles dirpath       a    s for s in os listdir dirpath           if os path isfile os path join dirpath  s        a sort key lambda s  os path getmtime os path join dirpath  s        return a   First  we build a list of the file names  isfile   is used to skip directories  it can be omitted if directories should be included  Then  we sort the list in-place  using the modify date as the key

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this is a basic step for learn   import os  stat  sys import time  dirpath   sys argv 1  if len sys argv     2 else r     listdir   os listdir dirpath   for i in listdir      os chdir dirpath      data 001   os path realpath i      listdir stat1   os stat data 001      listdir stat2     os stat data 001   data 001       print time ctime listdir stat1 st ctime   data 001

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In python 3 5   from pathlib import Path sorted Path      iterdir    key lambda f  f stat   st mtime

User · Answer

Here is a simple couple lines that looks for extention as well as provides a sort option  def get sorted files src dir  regex ext      sort reverse False        files to evaluate    os path join src dir  f  for f in os listdir src dir  if re search r            format regex ext   f       files to evaluate sort key os path getmtime  reverse sort reverse      return files to evaluate

[python] How do you get a directory listing sorted by creation date in python?

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