How to read multiple text files from folder in Python?

Prerequisite:

• File Handling
• os

Python is a strong language which is extremely capable even when it comes to file handling. In this article, we will learn how to read multiple text files from a folder using python.

Approach:

• Import modules
• Add path of the folder
• Change directory
• Get the list of a file from a folder
• Iterate through the file list and check whether the extension of the file is in .txt format or not.
• If text-file exist, read the file using File Handling

Functions used:

• os.chdir() method in Python used to change the current working directory to specified path. It takes only a single argument as new directory path.

Syntax: os.chdir(path)

Parameters:

• path: A complete path of directory to be changed to new directory path.

Returns: Doesn’t return any value

• os.listdir() method in python is used to get the list of all files and directories in the specified directory. If we don’t specify any directory, then list of files and directories in the current working directory will be returned.

Syntax: os.listdir(path)

Parameters:

• path (optional) : path of the directory

Return Type: This method returns the list of all files and directories in the specified path. The return type of this method is list.

Below is the Implementation:

Program:

Python3

# Import Module
import os

# Folder Path
path = "Enter Folder Path"

# Change the directory
os.chdir(path)

# Read text File


def read_text_file(file_path):
    with open(file_path, 'r') as f:
        print(f.read())


# iterate through all file
for file in os.listdir():
    # Check whether file is in text format or not
    if file.endswith(".txt"):
        file_path = f"{path}\{file}"

        # call read text file function
        read_text_file(file_path)

Output: