Python : How to Get List of all empty Directories ?

In this article we will discuss how to get list of all empty directories.

Python’s os module provides a function to iterate over a directory tree i.e.

os.walk(path)

It iterates of the directory tree at give path and for each directory or sub directory it returns a tuple containing,
(<Dir Name> , <List of Sub Dirs> , <List of Files>.

Now let’s use this to create a list of empty directories in a directory tree.

Creating a list of all empty Directories in a directory tree

• Create a list to Store empty directories
• Now Traverse all the files in given path using os.walk() :
  • For each Directory, check if it has no files and sub directories. If yes then add its path in the list.

dirName = '/home/varun/temp';

'''
    Get a list of empty directories in a directory tree
'''

# Create a List    
listOfEmptyDirs = list()

# Iterate over the directory tree and check if directory is empty.
for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(dirName):
    if len(dirnames) == 0 and len(filenames) == 0 :
        listOfEmptyDirs.append(dirpath)

Creating a list of all empty Directories in a directory tree using List Comprehension

More pythonic approach is a single line solution using List Comprehension,

listOfEmptyDirs = [dirpath for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(dirName) if len(dirnames) == 0 and len(filenames) == 0]

Complete example is as follows,

import os

def main():
    
    dirName = '/home/varun/temp';
    
    '''
        Get a list of empty directories in a directory tree
    '''
    
    # Create a List    
    listOfEmptyDirs = list()
    
    # Iterate over the directory tree and check if directory is empty.
    for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(dirName):
        if len(dirnames) == 0 and len(filenames) == 0 :
            listOfEmptyDirs.append(dirpath)

    
    # Iterate over the empty directories and print it
    for elem in listOfEmptyDirs:
        print(elem)    
        
    print ("****************")


    listOfEmptyDirs = [dirpath for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(dirName) if len(dirnames) == 0 and len(filenames) == 0]
    
    
    for elem in listOfEmptyDirs:
        print(elem)  
        
        
        
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Output:

/home/varun/temp/temp1
/home/varun/temp/temp2
/home/varun/temp/temp3
****************
/home/varun/temp/temp1
/home/varun/temp/temp2
/home/varun/temp/temp3