Post #2203542

2026-05-07 05:29 UTC

Almost every single time I try to use #python for data analysis I rediscover Clause Wilke&#39;s post. Especially the part about separating logic from logistics. In today&#39;s instance: I want to get the full path of all the files/folders in a folder, in #RStats that&#39;s just `list.files(path, full.names = TRUE)`. Simple and clear. In python you need some variation on files = [os.path.join(path, f) for f in os.listdir(path&#39;)] Which sucks. https://blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/python-is-not-a-great-language-for?open=false#%C2%A7separating-the-logic-from-the-logistics

Replies (5)

@eliocamp@mastodon.social 2026-05-07 06:07

I found a one-liner: `list(Path(path).iterdir())`. It's still rather convoluted and impossible to discover, but at least doesn´t require explicit loops.

Open ##2273797
@gspeed0689@mapstodon.space 2026-05-07 05:36

@eliocamp@mastodon.social just addressing the example py code and not the article or idea of python being bad for this, there is a nicer way now with Pathlib path = pathlib.Path(path) files = list(path.rglob("*"))

Open ##2273798
@bmaxv@noc.social 2026-05-07 05:49

@eliocamp@mastodon.social Hmmm. Yes. Of course it could be that your brain simply can't contain the vast(!) intellect required to write python. That's not your fault, it's a skill that can only be acquired by studying in a sufficiently pure field. Please consult the chart: https://xkcd.com/435/ Yes that was sarkasm. This is serious: I don't like that example. Don't use list comprehensions like that.

Open ##2273807
@jimgar@hachyderm.io 2026-05-07 07:29

@eliocamp@mastodon.social This isn’t apecific to your issue, but I’ve read Python people saying list comprehensions are easier to read than for loops. I simply cannot understand how that’s possible.

Open ##2273823
@drgroftehauge@sigmoid.social 2026-05-07 10:47

@eliocamp@mastodon.social Why on earth is files a method on the list class? And what do you do if you have 5 million files you want to do something to?

Open ##2273830