How to open a directory within a directory in Ruby

Question

I want to read files that are in one directory, but the directory has another directory that has information that I also need to read. Anyone has an idea of how I can do that? Here's my directory tree

Root
   |__code
        |__ file.rb (where I am working from)
   |__Directory
      |__file 1
      |__file 2
      |__Directory 2
                 |__file 3
                 |__file 4

I'm using File.open("file1", "r") to open the files.

I assume you are running the script from within Directory. Did you try, for example, File.open("Directory2/file3", "r")? — lurker
– lurker, Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 12:31
@lurker no, I'm working in another directory called code, I have edited the tree. — Linda Kadz
– Linda Kadz, Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 12:54
The question text does not make it clear if you want to read all files that happen to be in the directory tree or some predefined file such as Root/Directory/Directory2/file3. — Kimmo Lehto
– Kimmo Lehto, Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 13:31
@LindaKadz if that's teh case, then File.open("file1", "r") won't necessarily work either. You'll need to work with a more explicit path. — lurker
– lurker, Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 13:54

R. Sierra · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-14 13:38:24Z

1

Dir.glob is what you need. From Ruby Doc:

Expands pattern, which is a pattern string or an Array of pattern strings, and returns an array containing the matching filenames. If a block is given, calls the block once for each matching filename, passing the filename as a parameter to the block.

files = File.join("Root", "Directory", "**", "*")
Dir.glob(files)
# => ["Root/Directory/file 1", "Root/Directory/file 2", "Root/Directory 2/file 3", "Root/Directory 2/file 4"]

edited Feb 14, 2019 at 13:38

answered Feb 14, 2019 at 12:45

R. Sierra

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4 Comments

Linda Kadz Over a year ago

what's the first argument in the File.join method?

Linda Kadz Over a year ago

I figured out what the first arguement is, I put the path to Directory and it listed for me all the files in the directory (that's file 1 and file 2), but not Directory 2. In fact, here's my output ` # [ "../Directory 1/file1.rb", "../Directory 1/file2.rb", "../Directory 1/file3.rb", "../Directory 1/file4.rb"]`

R. Sierra Over a year ago

@LindaKadz I've just updated the answer to reflect the changes to the question. Please add the code you have been trying

Linda Kadz Over a year ago

This worked very well, but then I refactored to Dir.glob("../Directory 1/**/*.rb") Thanks so much!

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