Python AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'append' [closed]

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I'm trying to find files which are 30 days old in a specific directory, move them to a new folder and compress that folder, however when I execute my script, Python complains about Python AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'append'

import os 
import time 
import sys 
import shutil 
import tarfile
import sys
import os.path
import _strptime 
from array import*


path="/Data/"
now = time.time()
export = os.path.join(path+"archives")

f=[]
m=[]
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path): #List files in directory 
         for basename in files:
            f.append(os.path.join(root,basename))            
            print(f)
            for i in f:
                mtime=os.stat(i).st_mtime            
                print(i, mtime)
                if mtime > now - 7 * 86400:           
                    m.append(i) 
                    os.makedirs(export,0777)
                    for f in m: 
                        print("moving file", f,  "to",  export)
                        shutil.move(f, export) 
                        tarfile.open(export +time.strftime("%d-%Y-%m") +'.tar.gz', 'w:gz')

                    else:
                        print("Nothing to do")

possible duplicate of AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'append' — Tim
– Tim, Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 14:15
Next time - don't just put your code here. Show the error message & the specific part in the code that caused it. — tmr232
– tmr232, Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 14:16
Is this all your code? You're not actually calling .append() on a string anywhere — Tim
– Tim, Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 14:18
it is actually a good question as it shows the weird (in my opinion) python design principle, where loop variables have more "global" scope than expected and overwrite outer variables — lejlot
– lejlot, Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 14:24

lejlot · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-03 14:21:45Z

3

You are redeclaring f variable. It is a list on the begining, but then used in the inner loop

for f in m:

which makes f a string

simply change a name of inner loop variable to something different like

for filename in m: 
    print("moving file", filename,  "to",  export)
    shutil.move(filename, export) 
    tarfile.open(export +time.strftime("%d-%Y-%m") +'.tar.gz', 'w:gz')

It is a quite common issue with python, if you declare a variable as the "inner loop variable" it has the same scope as the "outer" loop so it overwrites its values.

x = 5
print x #prints 5
for a in range(10):
    for x in range(10):
        y=1
print x #prints 9
sth = [ 1 for x in range(20) ]
print x #prints 19

answered Jun 3, 2014 at 14:21

lejlot

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