How to list only top level directories in Python

Question

I want to be able to list only the directories inside some folder  This means I don t want filenames listed  nor do I want additional sub-folders   Let s see if an example helps  In the current directory we have    gt  gt  gt  os listdir os getcwd      cx Oracle-doc    DLLs    Doc    include    Lib    libs    LICENSE txt    mod p ython-wininst log    NEWS txt    pymssql-wininst log    python exe    pythonw ex e    README txt    Removemod python exe    Removepymssql exe    Scripts    tcl     Tools    w9xpopen exe     However  I don t want filenames listed  Nor do I want sub-folders such as  Lib curses  Essentially what I want works with the following    gt  gt  gt  for root  dirnames  filenames in os walk               print dirnames         break       cx Oracle-doc    DLLs    Doc    include    Lib    libs    Scripts    tcl    Tools     However  I m wondering if there s a simpler way of achieving the same results  I get the impression that using os walk only to return the top level is inefficient too much

User · Answer

You could also use os scandir  with os scandir os getcwd    as mydir      dirs    i name for i in mydir if i is dir     In case you want the full path you can use i path   Using scandir   instead of listdir   can significantly increase the performance of code that also needs file type or file attribute information  because os DirEntry objects expose this information if the operating system provides it when scanning a directory

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being a newbie here i can t yet directly comment but here is a small correction i d like to add to the following part of   O      s answer       If you prefer full pathnames  then use this function   def listdirs folder       return       d for d in  os path join folder  d1  for d1 in os listdir folder       if os path isdir d       for those still on python  lt  2 4  the inner construct needs to be a list instead of a tuple and therefore should read like this   def listdirs folder       return       d for d in  os path join folder  d1  for d1 in os listdir folder       if os path isdir d        otherwise one gets a syntax error

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This seems to work too  at least on linux    import glob  os glob glob       os path sep

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os walk  Use os walk with next item function   next os walk       1    For Python  lt  2 5 use   os walk      next   1    How this works  os walk is a generator and calling next will get the first result in the form of a 3-tuple  dirpath  dirnames  filenames   Thus the  1  index returns only the dirnames from that tuple

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Like so    gt  gt  gt  gt   path for path in os listdir os getcwd    if os path isdir path

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scanDir    abc  directories    d for d in os listdir scanDir  if os path isdir os path join os path abspath scanDir   d

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Using list comprehension    a for a in os listdir   if os path isdir a     I think It is the simplest way

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Python 3 4 introduced the pathlib module into the standard library  which provides an object oriented approach to handle filesystem paths  from pathlib import Path  p   Path        f for f in p iterdir   if f is dir

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directories  d for d in os listdir os getcwd    if os path isdir d

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-- This will exclude files and traverse through 1 level of sub folders in the root  def list files dir       List          filterstr           for root  dirs  files in os walk dir  topdown   True            r append root          if  root    dir               pass         elif filterstr in root               filterstr                   pass         else              filterstr   root              print root              for name in files                  print root                  print dirs                  List append os path join root name                print os path join root name    n                   print List   n        return List

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Filter the list using os path isdir to detect directories   filter os path isdir  os listdir os getcwd

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Filter the result using os path isdir    and use os path join   to get the real path     gt  gt  gt    name for name in os listdir thedir  if os path isdir os path join thedir  name       ctypes    distutils    encodings    lib-tk    config    idlelib    xml    bsddb    hotshot    logging    doc    test    compiler    curses    site-packages    email    sqlite3    lib-dynload    wsgiref    plat-linux2    plat-mac

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Note that  instead of doing os listdir os getcwd     it s preferable to do os listdir os path curdir   One less function call  and it s as portable   So  to complete the answer  to get a list of directories in a folder   def listdirs folder       return  d for d in os listdir folder  if os path isdir os path join folder  d      If you prefer full pathnames  then use this function   def listdirs folder       return           d for d in  os path join folder  d1  for d1 in os listdir folder           if os path isdir d

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Just to add that using os listdir   does not  take a lot of processing vs very simple os walk   next   1    This is because os walk   uses os listdir   internally  In fact if you test them together    gt  gt  gt  gt  import timeit  gt  gt  gt  gt  timeit timeit  os walk      next   1     import os   number 10000  1 1215229034423828  gt  gt  gt  gt  timeit timeit    name for name in os listdir      if os path isdir os path join      name        import os   number 10000  1 0592019557952881   The filtering of os listdir   is very slightly faster

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FWIW  the os walk approach is almost 10x faster than the list comprehension and filter approaches  In  30    timeit  d for d in os listdir os getcwd    if os path isdir d   1 23 ms    97 8   s per loop  mean    std  dev  of 7 runs  1000 loops each   In  31    timeit list filter os path isdir  os listdir os getcwd      1 13 ms    13 8   s per loop  mean    std  dev  of 7 runs  1000 loops each   In  32    timeit next os walk os getcwd     1  132   s    9 34   s per loop  mean    std  dev  of 7 runs  10000 loops each

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For a list of full path names I prefer this version to the other solutions here   def listdirs dir       return  os path join os path join dir  x   for x in os listdir dir           if os path isdir os path join dir  x

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A safer option that does not fail when there is no directory   def listdirs folder       if os path exists folder            return  d for d in os listdir folder  if os path isdir os path join folder  d        else           return

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A very much simpler and elegant way is to use this    import os  dir list   os walk      next   1   print dir list   Run this script in the same folder for which you want folder names It will give you exactly the immediate folders name only that too without the full path of the folders

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x for x in os listdir somedir  if os path isdir os path join somedir  x

[python] How to list only top level directories in Python?

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