How to combine files in python 3 - with open() as: NOT working

Question

I am trying to combine the content of all .txt files in a directory one level above the directory where the .py file below is stored.

import os

def main():
    # Get list of files stored in a dir above this .py's dir
    folder = os.listdir("../notes")

    # Merge the files
    merge_files(folder)

def merge_files(folder):
    # Create a list to store the names of the files
    files_names = []

    # Open output file in append mode
    with open("merged_notes.txt", "a") as outfile:
        # Iterate through the list of files
        for file in folder:
            # Add name of file to list
            files_names.append(file)
            print(files_names)

            # Open input file in read mode
            with open(file, "r") as infile:

                # Read data from input file
                data = infile.read()
                
                # Write data to output file (file name, data, new line)
                outfile.write(file)
                outfile.write(data)
                outfile.write("\n")

    # Return merged file
    return "merged_notes.txt"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

I keep getting this error:

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'File bard Mar 30 2023, 4 30 48 PM.txt'

However, the file name is saved in the list files_names, which means the for loop does find the file in the "notes" directory. I don't understand why with open(file, 'r') doesn't.

Answer 1

The open() function expects a file path, but file in your code is just the file name without path to directory where file is location.

Add the following line right after print(file_names):

file_path = os.path.join("../notes", file)

And change the open() funtion to take in file_path:

with open(file_path, "r") as infile: