I am trying to do something to all the files under a given path. I don\'t want to collect all the file names beforehand then do something with them, so I tried this:
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Iterators do not work recursively like that. You have to re-yield each result, by replacing
explore(path)
with something like
for value in explore(path):
yield value
Python 3.3 added the syntax yield from X
, as proposed in PEP 380, to serve this purpose. With it you can do this instead:
yield from explore(path)
If you're using generators as coroutines, this syntax also supports the use of generator.send() to pass values back into the recursively-invoked generators. The simple for
loop above would not.
You can also implement the recursion using a stack.
There is not really any advantage in doing this though, other than the fact that it is possible. If you are using python in the first place, the performance gains are probably not worthwhile.
import os
import stat
def explore(p):
'''
perform a depth first search and yield the path elements in dfs order
-implement the recursion using a stack because a python can't yield within a nested function call
'''
list_t=type(list())
st=[[p,0]]
while len(st)>0:
x=st[-1][0]
print x
i=st[-1][1]
if type(x)==list_t:
if i>=len(x):
st.pop(-1)
else:
st[-1][1]+=1
st.append([x[i],0])
else:
st.pop(-1)
stat_info = os.lstat(x)
if stat.S_ISDIR(stat_info.st_mode):
st.append([['%s/%s'%(x,a) for a in os.listdir(x)],0])
else:
yield x
print list(explore('.'))
Try this:
if stat.S_ISDIR(stat_info.st_mode):
for p in explore(path):
yield p
os.walk is great if you need to traverse all the folders and subfolders. If you don't need that, it's like using an elephant gun to kill a fly.
However, for this specific case, os.walk could be a better approach.
To answer the original question as asked, the key is that the yield
statement needs to be propagated back out of the recursion (just like, say, return
). Here is a working reimplementation of os.walk()
. I'm using this in a pseudo-VFS implementation, where I additionally replace os.listdir()
and similar calls.
import os, os.path
def walk (top, topdown=False):
items = ([], [])
for name in os.listdir(top):
isdir = os.path.isdir(os.path.join(top, name))
items[isdir].append(name)
result = (top, items[True], items[False])
if topdown:
yield result
for folder in items[True]:
for item in walk(os.path.join(top, folder), topdown=topdown):
yield item
if not topdown:
yield result
That calls explore
like a function. What you should do is iterate it like a generator:
if stat.S_ISDIR(stat_info.st_mode):
for p in explore(path):
yield p
else:
yield path
EDIT: Instead of the stat
module, you could use os.path.isdir(path)
.