directoryFilepathGrabber.py

# Python-script header etiquette: 
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1523427/what-is-the-common-header-format-of-python-files

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

"""
@author  : cristina


LANG     : Python # [i] print(platform.python_version()) [o]: 3.6.3


WHAT     : Script for parsing all .txt or .csv etc files of a user-defined input directory 


INPUT    : User defined arguments,  `input_dir_absolut_path`


TASK     : Iterates over all files in a given directory


RETURNS  : A list with the full paths of the .txt files detected in the


HOW TO   : from directoryFilenameGrabber import filepathGrabber
           list_of_filepaths_in_my_directory = filepathGrabber(my_input_directory)
           
SOLUTION : @stack: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10377998/how-can-i-iterate-over-files-in-a-given-directory

"""

def filepathGrabber(input_dir_absolut_path, file_extension):

  # Ze imports
    from pathlib import Path

    # the Path call is a generator and fetches the filepaths on the fly
    # To store the filepaths as strings, call the generator object `pathlist`      
    
    pathlist  =     Path(input_dir_absolut_path).glob('**/*' + str(file_extension))  
    
    # Extract filepath strings from generator object `pathlist`
    directory_files_list = [str(path) for path in pathlist]
    
    # Addition for `Windows` shenanigans with filepaths
    directory_files_list = [ path.replace("\\", "/")  for path in directory_files_list]
    return(directory_files_list)