moving a file in python using shutil

Question

I know there have been some posts on how to move a file in python but I am a little confused. I am working on a program that has a file called test.txt

The file path is this: C:\Users\user\Desktop\Project1\Project1
I want to move it to: C:\Users\user\Documents\ProjectMoved
I tried different variations of what I have below

src="C:\\Users\\user\\Desktop\\Project1\\Project1\\test.txt"
dst="C:\\Users\\user\\Documents\\ProjectMoved"
shutil.move(src, dst)

I keep getting the error no such file in directory.

I was wondering if someone could help me out with the correct way to move the file.

Does C:\Users\user\Documents\ProjectMoved exist? You probably have to create it. — Aran-Fey
– Aran-Fey, Commented Jul 19, 2016 at 19:58
are you trying to move the file test.txt to a directory or file called ProjectMoved? — Maximilian Peters
– Maximilian Peters, Commented Jul 19, 2016 at 20:04

p-robot · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-19 20:00:34Z

5

Might be worth checking the file exists and then trying to specify paths using os.path.join:

import shutil
import os
from os.path import join

src = join('/', 'Users', 'username', 'Desktop', 'a.pdf')
dst = join('/', 'Users', 'username', 'Documents', 'a.pdf')

shutil.move(src, dst)

You can first verify if the src actually exists:

os.path.exists(src)
>>> True

answered Jul 19, 2016 at 20:00

p-robot

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8 Comments

csciBeginner Over a year ago

It does exists when I do it with the src=join

csciBeginner Over a year ago

thank you it worked. Can you explain to me what join does? and why we needed the '/'

csciBeginner Over a year ago

Also is there a way to search your whole computer for a specific file in python

p-robot Over a year ago

os.path.join can create a full pathname from multiple components (among other things). You might want to use it cause then you can specify path names across any type of operating system. The 'slash' is the root directory (yes, it's an actual directory name). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_directory

p-robot Over a year ago

If you're starting in Python, be aware that the join function was imported from the os.path module. So you could remove the line from os.path import join and then use os.path.join instead of join in the above script, but you'd be best to read about importing modules in Python elsewhere (it's really a separate question). Searching for files using Python is a separate question - search SO for answers to this.

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Isaac Ewhuiknebueze · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-22 21:03:57Z

0

This problem can also be solved this way if your trying to move multiple .txt files from Folder A to folder B. This principle can be applied to your problem since your moving .txt file.

import os
import shutil
os.chdir('C:\\') 

dir_src = ("C:\\Folder A\\")
dir_dst = ("C:\\Folder B\\")

for filename in os.listdir(dir_src):
    if filename.endswith('.txt'):
        shutil.move( dir_src + filename, dir_dst)
    print(filename)

answered Aug 22, 2016 at 21:03

Isaac Ewhuiknebueze

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