Getting file size in Python?

6966488-1 picture 6966488-1 · Jul 6, 2011 · Viewed 612.5k times · Source

Is there a built-in function for getting the size of a file object in bytes? I see some people do something like this:

def getSize(fileobject):
    fileobject.seek(0,2) # move the cursor to the end of the file
    size = fileobject.tell()
    return size

file = open('myfile.bin', 'rb')
print getSize(file)

But from my experience with Python, it has a lot of helper functions so I'm guessing maybe there is one built-in.

Answer

Artsiom Rudzenka picture Artsiom Rudzenka · Jul 6, 2011

Use os.path.getsize(path) which will

Return the size, in bytes, of path. Raise OSError if the file does not exist or is inaccessible.

import os
os.path.getsize('C:\\Python27\\Lib\\genericpath.py')

Or use os.stat(path).st_size

import os
os.stat('C:\\Python27\\Lib\\genericpath.py').st_size 

Or use Path(path).stat().st_size (Python 3.4+)

from pathlib import Path
Path('C:\\Python27\\Lib\\genericpath.py').stat().st_size