Glob

Python · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

The glob module expands Unix-style filename patterns into matching paths. Use glob.glob for a list, glob.iglob for a lazy iterator. For OO APIs, prefer pathlib.Path.glob / .rglob.

🔧 Core concepts

Patterns are relative to the current working directory unless absolute.

💡 Examples

Basic glob:

import glob

py_files = glob.glob("src/*.py")
print(sorted(py_files))

**Recursive :

import glob

for path in glob.iglob("**/*.md", recursive=True):
    print(path)

Character classes and escape:

import glob

# match report1.csv … report9.csv
print(glob.glob("report[1-9].csv"))

needle = "file[1].txt"
print(glob.glob(glob.escape(needle)))  # literal brackets

pathlib alternative:

from pathlib import Path

root = Path("src")
for p in sorted(root.rglob("*.py")):
    if p.is_file():
        print(p.relative_to(root))

⚠️ Pitfalls

• ** only recurses when recursive=True (stdlib glob).
• Results are unordered — sort if you need stable output.
• Hidden files (. prefix) may be skipped depending on pattern/platform.
• Huge trees: prefer iglob / pathlib over building giant lists.
• Patterns follow cwd — anchor with absolute paths when scripts chdir.

🔗 Related

• Pathlib
• Files I/O
• Os
• Shutil
• Regex