Python pathlib iterdir subdirectories

February 22, 2023

Python pathlib.Path.iterdir only iterates over a single directory level. It does not recurse directories.

A common task is to iterate over each subdirectory of a top-level directory non-recursively. Given directory structure:

a/b
z
y/1/2

The Python iterdir example would return (in unspecified order):

a
z
y

Notice in the C++ and Python examples, iterators are used that emit one element at a time rather than building up an entire list at once. Since directory operations are often unordered, there is no advantage to retrieving every directory name in a greedy operation rather than the lazy generators shown, particularly if networked file systems are being used.