search a directory/list for a string

[ateale]

hey guys,

i am looking for a way to list a directory files/folders and find/match a string i define.

mystring = "cool_python_test"
list = os.listdir( /adam/test/)
matches = re.match( mysting + "*", list)

the directory could contain:
cool_python_test_01
cool_python_test_02
test
cheese

i want the script to return the:
cool_python_test_01
cool_python_test_02

any ideas? I googled around and read something about using the re module - can't seem to get my head around it

any help would be awesome

cheers!

Adam

[ateale]

i might be getting there

mystring = "cool_python_test"
 
list = os.listdir( /adam/test/)
for a in list:
    found = re.findall( mystring + "*", a)
    print found
 

is it possible for items that it returns to display the full file name? - not just the portion of the name that it matches?

[ghostdog74]

i might be getting there

mystring = "cool_python_test"

list = os.listdir( /adam/test/)
for a in list:
found = re.findall( mystring + "*", a)
print found

is it possible for items that it returns to display the full file name? - not just the portion of the name that it matches?

are you trying to find the file/folder names that has the mystring pattern?
you can use the glob module to find.

import glob
if glob.glob(mystring+"*") != []:
   for found in glob.glob(mystring+"*"):
        print found
 

or you can just do normal string finding (not tested)

thelist = os.listdir("dir")
for found in thelist:
     if found.find(mystring) != -1:
          print found
 

[ateale]

ghostdog74 you are a great help!
The glob method is perfect - will read up more about it

cheers!

[ateale]

any ideas on how to find an item in the string with the highest number?

e.g. if the following 4 files were found

cool_python_test_01
cool_python_test_04
cool_python_test_02
cool_python_test_03

i can store "cool_python_test_04" as a string?

thanks for all your help!

[ilikepython]

any ideas on how to find an item in the string with the highest number?

e.g. if the following 4 files were found

cool_python_test_01
cool_python_test_01
cool_python_test_02
cool_python_test_03

i can store "cool_python_test_04" as a string?

thanks for all your help!

You can sort them, but that might not be the best way, depending on what you are doing:

lst = ["cool_python_test_01", "cool_python_test_04", "cool_python_test_02", "cool_python_test_03"]
lst.sort()
print lst[-1]