Trying to run python program on all files in directory NEED TO SCAN AND USE EACH FILE NAME

Question

I wrote a very basic program to remove quotation marks from a text file. I have about 50 files I need to run and would rather run the program for all text files in a directory...

The big issue I am having is that I need the files to be read one at a time, and once the " are stripped, all the contents of the file outputted to a new file which uses the name of the input file.

For example:

As I have it now, the program takes the input file name as an argument, and creates the output file name as the infile name + _output.txt. How do I make it so it processes all the text files in a directory but names the files how I want it to?

My program:

import sys

if len(sys.argv) <2:
    print "Usage: python %s requires input file" % (sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit()

infile = sys.argv[1]
outfile = infile.split(".")[0] + "_output.txt"

INFH = open(infile)
OFH = open(outfile, "w")

print "Output File = %s" % (outfile)

for line in INFH:
    line=line.strip('\n').replace('\"','')

    print >> OFH, line
INFH.close()

I'ts from trying to cooperate with stack overflow's code block system for asking questions — cobaltchaos
– cobaltchaos, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 15:55
I understand using os.listdir, but how does os.path.isfile help? — cobaltchaos
– cobaltchaos, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 15:59
os.listdir(path) returns files and folders in a directory. Use os.path.isfile(path) to make shure it's a file. — linusg
– linusg, Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 16:02

linusg · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-18 17:20:18Z

2

You can do it like this:

import sys, os

if len(sys.argv) < 2 and not os.path.isdir(sys.argv[1]):
    print("Usage: python {} directory".format(sys.argv[0]))
    sys.exit()

for entry in os.listdir(sys.argv[1]):
    if os.path.isfile(entry):
        infile = entry
        outfile = infile.split(".")[0] + "_output.txt"

        INFH = open(infile)
        OFH = open(outfile, "a")

        print("Output File = {}".format(outfile))

        for line in INFH:
            line = line.strip('\n').replace('\"','')
            OFH.write(line)

        INFH.close()

Just add an directory instead of an file as argument.

edited Apr 18, 2016 at 17:20

answered Apr 18, 2016 at 16:08

linusg

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3 Comments

cobaltchaos Over a year ago

This returns an IndexError:list index out of range

linusg Over a year ago

Hmm, do you use sth. like python yourfile.py ./dir/?

linusg Over a year ago

@cobaltchaos I've made some changes to the code, please try again. Works for me under Windows 10 and Python 3.4.4

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