Python glob and bracket characters ('[]')

python glob
prosseek picture prosseek · Apr 7, 2010 · Viewed 11k times · Source

/Users/smcho/Desktop/bracket/[10,20] directory has "abc.txt", but when I run this Python code

import glob
import os.path

path1 = "/Users/smcho/Desktop/bracket/\[10,20\]"
pathName = os.path.join(path1, "*.txt")
print glob.glob(pathName)

It returns an empty list.

  • Can't Python's glob handle the bracket letters or others?
  • Is there any way to solve this problem?

Answer

interjay picture interjay · Apr 7, 2010

The brackets in glob are used for character classes (e.g. [a-z] will match lowercase letters). You can put each bracket in a character class to force them being matched:

path1 = "/Users/smcho/Desktop/bracket/[[]10,20[]]"

[[] is a character class containing only the character [, and []] is a character class containing only the character ] (the closing bracket can be placed in a character class by putting it in the first position).

Additionally, since brackets aren't escaped in string literals, your code will look for a backslash as well as a bracket.

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