Creating folder if it does not exist, move files there

Question

I am python newbie and have read countless answers here and in other sources, on how to create folders if they do not exist and move files there. However, still I cannot bring it to work.

So what I want to do is the following: Keep my downloads folder clean. I want to run the script, it is supposed to move all files to matching extension name folders. If the folder already exists, it does not have to create it.

Problems: I want to be able to run the script as often as I want while keeping the newly created folders there. However, then the whole os.listdir part does not work because folders have no file extensions. I tried to solve this by leaving out folders but it does not work as well.

I would appreciate any help!

from os import scandir

import os

import shutil



basepath = r"C:\Users\me\Downloads\test"



for entry in scandir(basepath):

    if entry.is_dir():

        continue

    files = os.listdir(r"C:\Users\me\Downloads\test")

    ext = [f.rsplit(".")[1] for f in files]

    ext_final = set(ext)


try:

    [os.makedirs(e) for e in ext_final]

except:

    print("Folder already exists!")



for file in files:

    for e in ext_final:

        if file.rsplit(".")[1]==e:

            shutil.move(file,e)

Answer 1

os.makedirs has a switch to create a folder if it does not exist. use it like this:

os.makedirs(foldern_name, exist_ok=True)

so just replace that try...except part of code which is this:

try:

    [os.makedirs(e) for e in ext_final]

except:

    print("Folder already exists!")

with this:

for e in ext_final:
    os.makedirs(e, exist_os=True)

Answer 2

I tried my own approach ... It is kind of ugly but it gets the job done.

import os
import shutil



def sort_folder(fpath: str) -> None:

    dirs = []
    files = []
    filetypes = []

    for item in os.listdir(fpath):
        if os.path.isfile(f"{fpath}\{item}"):
            files.append(item)
        else:
            dirs.append(item)

    for file in files:
        filetype = os.path.splitext(file)[1]
        filetypes.append(filetype)

    for filetype in set(filetypes):
        if not os.path.isdir(f"{fpath}\{filetype}"):
            os.mkdir(f"{fpath}\{filetype}")

    for (file, filetype) in zip(files, filetypes):
        shutil.move(f"{fpath}\{file}", f"{fpath}\{filetype}")



if __name__ == '__main__':
# running the script

    sort_folder(fpath)