find 'yesterdays files'

[tester_V]

Greetings!
I guess the question is not new, but I cannot find a clan small snippet.
I found one here, on this forum - it has a function and 25 lines of code, it is not small or clean.

Anyway, need to scan a directory and find (and copy) files created yesterday.
I got this so far:

import os
import time
import datetime
today = datetime.date.today()
td = today.ctime()
print(f" Today --> {td}")

dirtoscan = "c:\\0001\\"
for fl in os.listdir(dirtoscan) :
    f_path = os.path.join(dirtoscan,fl)
    modified = os.path.getmtime(f_path)
    dateModif = time.ctime(modified)
    print(f"File Modif --> {dateModif}") 

I could split 'td' get a Second Element of spit

td = today.ctime()

And Split 'datemodif' to get Second Element of split

dateModif = time.ctime(modified)

and compare them, but it looks awful, ugly kind of code...
Thank you.

[Gribouillis]

You could use pathlib and datetime modules

>>> from pathlib import Path
>>> import datetime as dt
>>>
>>> yesterday = dt.datetime.now().date() - dt.timedelta(days=1)
>>> f = Path('foo.png')
>>> if yesterday == dt.datetime.fromtimestamp(f.stat().st_mtime).date():
...     print('f was last modified yesterday')
... 
>>> 

Note that st_mtime gives modification time on all platforms, and st_ctime gives creation time in Windows but not necessarily in Linux.

[Yoriz]

With the following code, i made a created_yesterday_stat_matcher function, you could make different functions to match different stats.

import datetime
from pathlib import Path


def created_yesterday_stat_matcher(path_stat):
    ctime = datetime.date.fromtimestamp(path_stat.st_ctime)
    return ctime == datetime.date.today() - datetime.timedelta(days=1)


def directory_stat_matcher_files(directory, stat_matcher):
    for path in Path(directory).iterdir():
        if stat_matcher(path.stat()):
            yield path


directory = 'your directory'
for path in directory_stat_matcher_files(directory, created_yesterday_stat_matcher):
    print(path)

[tester_V]

Well, I tried Gribouillis snipped and it works.
I have a question.
I have already a variable 'path'
I tried to use it

f=path

but the code fails.
I'm wondering what does it mean?

f=Path

from pathlib import Path
import datetime as dt

yesterday = dt.datetime.now().date() - dt.timedelta(days=1)
dirtoscan = "c:\\0001\\"
for fl in os.listdir(dirtoscan) :
    path = os.path.join(dirtoscan,fl)
    #f = path
    f = Path(path)
    if yesterday == dt.datetime.fromtimestamp(f.stat().st_mtime).date():
        print(f"File was last modified yesterday - {f}")

I did not try another snippet, it looks complicated, I do not understand it.

Thank you!

[Gribouillis]

You could simplify this in

for f in Path(dirtoscan).iterdir():
    ...

but you should perhaps consider the case where dirtoscan contains items that are not ordinary files, such as directories...

Also programming is not only copying and pasting working snippets. Try to understand what's going on.

[tester_V]

I just posted a simple version of the script I'm working on.
I do a test if an item in the 'listdir'is is a directory or a file...

One more question if I may, the capital "Path", what is it?

Path(dirtoscan)

Thank you both of you for the snippets!

[Yoriz]

It is the Path class imported from the pahtlib

from pathlib import Path

pathlib — Object-oriented filesystem paths
This module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems. Path classes are divided between pure paths, which provide purely computational operations without I/O, and concrete paths, which inherit from pure paths but also provide I/O operations.

[snippsat]

One more question if I may, the capital "Path", what is it?

Also look at.
Python 3's pathlib Module: Taming the File System

Since Python 3.4, pathlib has been available in the standard library.
With pathlib, file paths can be represented by proper Path objects instead of plain strings as before.
These objects make code dealing with file paths:

• Easier to read, especially because / is used to join paths together
  
• More powerful, with most necessary methods and properties available directly on the object
  
• More consistent across operating systems, as peculiarities of the different systems are hidden by the Path object
  

In this tutorial, you have seen how to create Path objects, read and write files,
manipulate paths and the underlying file system, as well as some examples of how to iterate over many file paths.

[tester_V]

I did not know that...
Thank you!
You are Da Man!