Python: Moving files to folder based on filenames

Question

I have a folder with 10 images that I wish to move into a new folder based on it's current filenames. I've successfully been able to move every images in the folder into a new folder, and as of now I've been successful at moving each image filename to its own folder but I've yet to figure out how to move all images with the same filename into one folder and the other to another folder. For example below I want to move the images accordingly.

• 1600_01.jpg ---> folder 1
• 1700_01.jpg ---> folder 1
• 1800_02.jpg ---> folder 2
• 1900_02.jpg ---> folder 2
• 2000_03.jpg ---> folder 3
• 2100_03.jpg ---> folder 3

This is my code thus far for moving the image files to a new folder by creating new folders based on it's filename. I got the part on making folders but I'm quite confused when it created separate image folders for all the images.

import os, shutil, glob

#Source file 
sourcefile = 'Desktop/00/'

# for loop then I split the names of the image then making new folder 
for file_path in glob.glob(os.path.join(sourcefile, '*.jpg*')):
    new_dir = file_path.rsplit('.', 1)[0]    
    # If folder does not exist try making new one
    try:
        os.mkdir(os.path.join(sourcefile, new_dir))
    # except error then pass
    except WindowsError:
        pass
    # Move the images from file to new folder based on image name
    shutil.move(file_path, os.path.join(new_dir, os.path.basename(file_path)))

This is what I got after I ran my script.

However, What I'm trying to do is shown in this image below:

Solution

You can use os.path.exists() to check if the folder exists, if it exists copy the jpg into it.

Side note: It's better to use copy. When you use move you can mix everything up if you do something wrong.

import os
import shutil

os.chdir("<abs path to desktop>")

for f in os.listdir("folder"):
    folder_name = f[-6:-4]
    
    if not os.path.exists(folder_name):
        os.mkdir(folder_name)
        shutil.copy(os.path.join("folder", f), folder_name)
    else:
        shutil.copy(os.path.join("folder", f), folder_name)

Comments

[ZenB883]

Thanks for answering my question, however when I ran your script, nothing happened.

[BcK]

Put the script and the folder inside the same directory, I had tried it with txt files and it works.

[ZenB883]

hey could you check my codes if i'm missing anything because I feel like i'm missing 1 more ingredient to this script and I can't figure out which, what am I missing?

[BcK]

You need to give me more info about what is happening on your side, added image for proof.

[ZenB883]

Yes, It works but the path that it was copied to was desktop and the error is FileNotFoundError: [WinError 3] The system cannot find the path specified: ''

[BcK]

Ok I guess I understood your problem, you are trying to run the script from a different working directory, add the line on top of your code. >>> os.chdir(<path to your desktop>)

[ZenB883]

Thanks for helping me solve the problem and taking the time to answer my question @BcK