How to do a file search using Python

Question

Problem: Implement the function search(), which accepts as input the name of a file and the path of a folder, to search for the file in the folder and in any folder contained therein, directly or indirectly. The function should return the file path if found; otherwise, none should be returned.

Like I did:

def search(file,pasta):
    import os

    for (root, dirs, files) in os.walk(path, topdown=True):
        #print(root)
        #print(dirs)
        #print(files)
        if file in files:
            print(root)


path = r"test"
file = "fileE.txt"
search(file,path)

The above program works, but the idea is to do "at hand", IE, without using os.walk, somehow recursive. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I’m not an expert at creating recursive functions but I did my best to answer your question. It is possible to make by hand a function like the walk through recursiveness only that I still needed to use some functions of the module os to complete this task.

Below is the function search() which scans all folders and sub-folders within the current directory looking for the desired file:

import os

def search(filename, path = os.getcwd()):

    results = os.listdir(path)

    # Verifica se há um arquivo dentro do diretório atual.
    if filename in results:
        yield path

    for found in results:

        # Junta o caminho atual com o nome do arquivo ou diretório achado.
        found = os.path.join(path, found)

        # Verifica se é um diretório. Se ele for, a função "search" 
        # será chamada novamente para fazer uma busca nesta pasta encontrada
        # e depois será retornado através do yield todos os diretórios 
        # possuem o arquivo desejado.

        if os.path.isdir(found):
            for path in search(filename, found):
                if path: yield path

Note in the above code that instead of using return I used the yield. I did it so that the function can continue the execution of for loop and go checking the following directories at the same time that returns the obtained path.

Maybe there’s a much better way than mine to create that function, but that’s the best I could think of and create. I hope I’ve helped you.