3 Real-World Examples of Using Python’s Glob Package: Code Snippets Included

Introduction:

Python’s glob package is a versatile tool that can be used to search for files and directories that match a specific pattern. The glob package can be particularly useful in real-world applications where you need to perform operations on a large number of files. In this article, we will discuss 3 real-world examples of using the Python glob package with code snippets.

Image Processing

Image processing is a common application in the field of computer vision, and it often involves working with a large number of images. The Python glob package can be used to search for all the images in a directory that match a specific pattern, such as images with a particular extension or images that have a certain naming convention.

import glob
from PIL import Image

for filename in glob.glob('images/*.jpg'):
    with Image.open(filename) as img:
        # Perform image processing operations here

In this example, we use the glob package to search for all the images in the ‘images’ directory that have a .jpg extension. We then use the Python Imaging Library (PIL) to open and perform image processing operations on each image.

Data Processing

Data processing is another common application of the Python glob package. When working with data, you may need to search for all the files in a directory that contain data for a particular time period, or all the files that contain data for a particular data type.

import glob
import pandas as pd

dataframes = []

for filename in glob.glob('data/*.csv'):
    df = pd.read_csv(filename)
    # Perform data processing operations here
    dataframes.append(df)
    
merged_df = pd.concat(dataframes)

In this example, we use the glob package to search for all the CSV files in the ‘data’ directory. We then use the pandas library to read each CSV file into a pandas dataframe and perform data processing operations on each dataframe. Finally, we merge all the dataframes into one large dataframe.

File Management

The Python glob package can also be used for file management tasks, such as moving, copying, or deleting files that match a specific pattern.

import glob
import shutil

for filename in glob.glob('old_files/*.txt'):
    shutil.move(filename, 'new_files')

In this example, we use the glob package to search for all the text files in the ‘old_files’ directory. We then use the shutil module to move each file to the ‘new_files’ directory.

Conclusion

The Python glob package is a versatile tool that can be used in a variety of real-world applications. In this article, we discussed three examples of using the glob package in image processing, data processing, and file management. By using the glob package, you can quickly and easily search for files and directories that match a specific pattern, allowing you to perform operations on large sets of data with ease.