How to move files from multiple specific subfolders in the same directory?

Question

I'm trying to do the same as in this question: Copy files from multiple specific subfolders.

But none of the answers work for me at all. When I execute the py in my Windows cmd it doesn't even go into the loops, as I receive no print() line in the cmd window after executing.

I've tried this solution which copies the files from the directory but ignores all subfolders in that directory entirely.

I have tried looking into shutil but I don't think I can use it for my case because of the subfolders? It's really important that I don't keep the subfolder structure but just move all the files into one directory.

This is what I have right now but the output unfortunately keeps the folder structure:

import shutil
import os

# Define the source and destination path
source = "d:\\test"
destination = "d:\\test\SubfolderB"

# code to move the files from sub-folder to main folder.
files = os.listdir(source)
for file in files:
    file_name = os.path.join(source, file)
    shutil.move(file_name, destination)
print("Files Moved")

S3DEV · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-15T08:09:09.843

Issues 1 and 2:
It appears that two of the primary issues in the original code is that os.listdir does not recurse into each sub-directory, but only provides a list of file and directory names, rather than the full path. So a two-fold issue here.

To address this, the built-in glob library can be used. Per the documentation, a glob pattern of '**' along with the parameter recursive=True, will dive into each sub-directory and return the full file path, as desired.

Note: If only a specific file type is required, the pattern can be changed to **/*.txt, or whatever file extension you're after.

Issue 3:
Additionally, the shutil.move command needs the full path to the destination, including the filename; which the original code does not address.

Example code:

import os
import shutil
from glob import glob

# Path setup.
path = './filemove'
dest = './filemove_dest'

# Collect files.
files = glob(os.path.join(path, '**'), recursive=True)

# Ensure destination path exists.
if not os.path.isdir(dest):
    os.makedirs(dest)
# Move all files.
for f in files:
    if os.path.isfile(f):
        base = os.path.basename(f)
        shutil.move(f, os.path.join(dest, base))

Original file structure:

./dir1
./dir1/dir1_file1
./dir1/dir1_file2
./dir1/dir1_file3
./dir1/dir1_file4
./dir1/dir1_file5
...
./dir5
./dir5/dir5_file1
./dir5/dir5_file2
./dir5/dir5_file3
./dir5/dir5_file4
./dir5/dir5_file5

Results:

./filemove_dest/dir1_file1
./filemove_dest/dir1_file2
./filemove_dest/dir1_file3
...
./filemove_dest/dir5_file3
./filemove_dest/dir5_file4
./filemove_dest/dir5_file5

Thank you so much for the explanation!! The recursive loop is so easy to add, i was really confused by it at first, but i understand it much better now. — Simon, Jul 15 '22 at 08:43
Ah excellent. Glad to hear the explanation has helped you. My pleasure. — S3DEV, Jul 15 '22 at 08:48

How to move files from multiple specific subfolders in the same directory?

1 Answers1

Example code:

Original file structure:

Results: