Get information from a file in Python

To get information from a file in Python we will use the os module, the path in our storage unit and the following functions:

• os.path.getsize() returns the size of the archive or file.
• os.path.getmtime() returns the last modified date of the file.
• os.path.getctime() returns the creation date (equal to the last modified date on Unix like Mac).

» See more examples

We show you the code to use these functions:

import os

filename = '/home/geekole/Documentos/python/archivos/archivo.txt'

print(os.path.getsize(filename))
print(os.path.getmtime(filename))
print(os.path.getctime(filename))

Of course, you must modify the path of the file you are using as an example.

Another way to obtain information in a more concise way is by using the stat() function, which also receives the file path as an argument.

import os

filename = '/home/geekole/Documentos/python/archivos/archivo.txt'

print(os.stat(filename))

With which you will get something like this:

Where each value means the following:

• st_mode the type of file and its permissions.
• st_ino the inode number.
• st_dev the device id.
• st_uid the owner id.
• st_gid the group id.
• st_size the size of the file.

These properties can be consulted individually:

import os

filename = '/home/geekole/Documentos/python/archivos/archivo.txt'

stats = os.stat(filename)

print(stats.st_size)
print(stats.st_mtime)

If you run the above script you will get the following output:

You can also refer to other Python examples for creating and reading text files:

• Python – Create Txt Files in Python
• Python – Read Txt Files in Python

We hope these examples for getting information from a file in Python will be useful to you.

See more information: https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html