The fnmatch Module

The fnmatch module matches filenames against a pattern, as Example 2-27 shows.

The pattern syntax is the same as that used in Unix shells. An asterisk (*) matches zero or more characters, and a question mark (?) matches exactly one character. You can also use brackets to indicate character ranges, such as [0-9] for a single digit. All other characters match themselves.

Example 2-27. Using the fnmatch Module to Match Files

File: fnmatch-example-1.py import fnmatch import os for file in os.listdir("samples"): if fnmatch.fnmatch(file, "*.jpg"): print file sample.jpg

In Example 2-28, the translate function converts a file pattern to a regular expression.

Example 2-28. Using the fnmatch Module to Convert a Pattern to a Regular Expression

File: fnmatch-example-2.py import fnmatch import os, re pattern = fnmatch.translate("*.jpg") for file in os.listdir("samples"): if re.match(pattern, file): print file print "(pattern was %s)" % pattern sample.jpg (pattern was .*.jpg$)

The fnmatch module is used by the glob and find modules.