The Secrets of Python's Glob

Table of Common Glob Strings

Glob	Definition	Example Glob	Valid Files	Not Valid
*	matches 0 or more characters	*.jpg	[im1.jpg,cat.jpg]	cat.JPG, dog.png
?	matches EXACTLY 1 character	?_at.jpg	bat.jpg,cat.jpg	hhat.jpg
**	recursive search	/*/.jpg	[home/imgs/1.jpg,imgs/im.jpg]	file.jpg
!()	does not match characters in ()	!(a)	[rock.jpg,shell.txt]	cat.txt
[]	matches range of character in []	[ad]-img/*.txt	[a-img.txt,d-img.txt]	c-file.txt
*()	matches 0 or more characters within the ()	"*(.jpg)"	[file.jpg,blob.jpg,k.jpg]	file.png

Interactive tool to test your glob

I discovered Glob Tool that lets you test out your glob strings with sample file paths. You type in the string glob you think would find the files you want then type the file path in the Test Strings box and it will show you if your file will be found. This is a great way to learn glob and saves your time from testing it on your computer.

Get the full path of all the jpegs in a folder

Get the full path of all the jpgs in a folder with glob.

TDLR

# Windows paths use \ so use \\ instead
images=glob.glob("C:\\Python\\images\\*.jpg")
# Returns 
#["C:\\Python\\images\\img.jpg","C:\\Python\\images\\img2.jpg"]

Full Code

import glob
import os 
images_path=os.getcwd() + os.sep+"images"
# C:\\Python\\images\\
glob_str=images_path+"*jpg"
# C:\\Python\\images\\*jpg
full_images_paths=glob.glob(glob_str)
# On Windows Returns 
#["C:\\Python\\images\\img.jpg","C:\\Python\\images\\img2.jpg"]

Get just the filenames in a folder

Get the just the names of all the jpgs in a folder with glob1. glob1 takes two arguments the file path you want to search and the glob string you pass in.
glob.glob1("file_path_to_search","pattern")

TDLR

# Windows paths use \ so use \\ instead
images=glob.glob1("C:\\Python\\images\\","*.jpg")
# This also works:
images=glob.glob1("C:\\Python\\images","*.jpg")
# Returns 
#["img.jpg","img2.jpg"]

Full Code

import glob
import os 
images_path=os.getcwd() + os.sep+"images"
# C:\\Python\\images\\
full_images_paths=glob.glob(images_path,"*jpg")
# On Windows Returns 
#["img.jpg","img2.jpg"]

In Depth Glob Table

Glob	Definition	Example Glob	Valid Files	Not Valid	Explaination
*	matches 0 or more characters CASE SENSITIVE	*.jpg	[im1.jpg,cat.jpg]	cat.JPG, dog.png	The rest of the string must match
?	matches EXACTLY 1 character	?_at.jpg	bat.jpg,cat.jpg	hhat.jpg	Only 1 character before the _at
**	recursive search	/*/.jpg	[home/folders/img.jpg,folders/im.jpg]	file.jpg	Cannot be without a parent directory
!()	does not match characters in ()	!(a)	[rock.jpg,shell.txt]	cat.txt	A cannot be in the string
[]	matches range of character in [] CASE SENSITIVE	[ad]-file/*.txt	[a-file.txt,d-file.txt]	c-file.txt	c is not in the [ad] so its not a match
*()	matches 0 or more characters within the ()	"*(.jpg)"	[file.jpg,blob.jpg,k.jpg]	file.png	Files with any name as long as they end in .jpg