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Version of glob for that Supports Windows Wildcards?
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Version of glob for that Supports Windows Wildcards?
#1
Is there a Python module that works like glob except that it works properly on Windows?

Here's the problem. Windows recognizes "?" and "*" as wildcards. Windows does NOT recognize "[" or "]" as special characters, whereas glob uses them to denote character classes. Many of my scripts are set to operate on either a file or a file pattern. Technically all file names are patterns. They are just patterns that match at most one file. So a loop like

for file in glob.glob(pattern):

works just fine under Windows as long as an actual pattern with a wildcard is given. It fails when

1. a non-wildcard filename is given and
2. that filename contains "[" or "]"

If my folder contains the files

Awards Day [1994].mp4
Betula Lake [1983].mp4
Piano Recital [1994].mp4

and my pattern is "Awards Day [1994].mp4" then the loop does not find the file. While glob provides the glob.escape method, it also escapes "?" and "*" thus making the Windows wildcards ineffective for pattern matching.

One "solution" which I expect someone to propose is to rename all my files to avoid the use of "[" or "]". This is not a solution. I should be allowed to use any valid character that Windows allows.
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Messages In This Thread
Version of glob for that Supports Windows Wildcards? - by Reverend_Jim - Jun-14-2019, 10:37 PM

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