Obtaining Directory Listings Sorted by Creation Date Using Python

When navigating a directory, the need often arises to obtain a list of its contents sorted according to specific criteria, such as creation date. In Python, this task can be accomplished with ease.

Suggested Approach:

To achieve this, a combination of Python's inbuilt file system manipulation modules and a sorting function is employed. The following code snippet illustrates this process:

import glob
import os

search_dir = "/mydir/"
files = [os.path.join(search_dir, f) for f in os.listdir(search_dir) if os.path.isfile(f)]
files.sort(key=lambda x: os.path.getmtime(x))

This code snippet begins by obtaining a list of all files within the specified directory using os.listdir(). Subsequently, any non-file items (e.g., directories, links) are filtered out using os.path.isfile(). To ensure correct file paths, each file name is prefixed with the search directory path.

The files are then sorted according to their modification time using the os.path.getmtime() function. This function returns the time of the last modification of a file in numeric format. By passing this function as the key argument to the sorted() function, the files are arranged in chronological order, with the most recently created files appearing first.

Alternative Approach:

An alternative approach involves utilizing the glob module to filter the files and obtain a list of absolute file paths:

import glob
import os

search_dir = "/mydir/"
# This glob will look for all files and exclude any directories
files = [f for f in glob.glob(f"{search_dir}/**", recursive=True) if os.path.isfile(f)]
files.sort(key=lambda x: os.path.getmtime(x))

This code essentially searches the entire contents of the specified directory and its subdirectories, including all files and excluding any directories. The glob.glob() function allows for more flexible filename matching if required.