Greetings,
A script is working on one or more files. I want to pass the filenames (with regex in them) as arguments and put them in a list. What is the best way to do it?
For example I would accept the following arguments:
script.py file[1-3].nc #would create list [file1.nc, file2.nc, file3.nc] that I can work on
script.py file*.nc #would scan the folder for matching patterns and create a list
script.py file1.nc file15.nc booba[1-2].nc #creates [file1.nc, file15.nc, booba1.nc, booba2.nc]
Updated: Under Unix, the shell will do the example expansions you want. Under Windows it won't, and then you need to use glob.glob().
But if you really do want regexp: Then you will simply have to list the directory, with listdir, and match the filenames with the regexp pattern. You'll also have to pass the parameter in quotes (at least under unix) so it doesn't expand it for you. :-)
The glob module is exactly what you are looking for
Check the examples:
>>> import glob
>>> glob.glob('./[0-9].*')
['./1.gif', './2.txt']
>>> glob.glob('*.gif')
['1.gif', 'card.gif']
>>> glob.glob('?.gif')
['1.gif']
You can use optparse or just sys.argv to get arguments. And pass them to glob.