The fnmatch module

This module allows you to match filenames against a pattern.

The pattern syntax is the same as that used in Unix shells. An asterisk (*) matches zero or more characters, and a question mark (?) exactly one character. You can also use brackets to indicate character ranges, such as [0-9] for a single digit. All other characters match themselves.

# File: fnmatch-example-1.py

import fnmatch
import os

for file in os.listdir("samples"):
    if fnmatch.fnmatch(file, "*.jpg"):
        print file

sample.jpg

The translate function converts a file pattern to a regular expression:

# File: fnmatch-example-2.py

import fnmatch
import os, re

pattern = fnmatch.translate("*.jpg")

for file in os.listdir("samples"):
    if re.match(pattern, file):
        print file

print "(pattern was %s)" % pattern

sample.jpg
(pattern was .*\.jpg$)

This module is used by the glob and find modules.