How to Sort a Directory Listing by Creation Date in Python?

Getting a Directory Listing Sorted by Creation Date in Python

When working with directories in Python, it may be necessary to retrieve a listing of files sorted by their creation dates. To accomplish this task, the following approach can be employed:

1. Import the Necessary Modules:

import os
import glob  # For more flexible directory filtering

2. Traverse the Target Directory:

Use os.listdir() or glob.glob() to obtain a list of all file paths in the desired directory.

search_dir = "/mydir/"
files = os.listdir(search_dir)
# Or use glob for more advanced filtering
files = list(filter(os.path.isfile, glob.glob(search_dir + "*")))

3. Filter Out Non-Files:

If you only need files in your list, apply a filter to remove any directories or symlinks present in the list.

files = list(filter(os.path.isfile, files))

4. Sort the List by Creation Date:

Utilize the key=lambda x: os.path.getmtime(x) argument in the sort function to sort files based on their last modification times, which are an approximation of their creation dates.

files.sort(key=lambda x: os.path.getmtime(x))

5. Normalize File Paths:

For some functions that require full file paths, such as os.path.getmtime(), it may be necessary to append the original directory path to each file in the list.

files = [os.path.join(search_dir, f) for f in files]

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