Browse for file path in python

Question

I am trying to create a GUI with a browse window to locate a specific file. I found this question earlier: Browsing file or directory Dialog in Python

although when I looked up the terms it didn't seem to be what I was looking for.

All I need is something launchable from a Tkinter button that returns a the path of the selected file from the browser.

Anybody have a resources for this?

EDIT: Alright so the question has been answered. To anybody with a similar question, do your research, the code out there DOES work. DO NOT test it in cygwin. it doesn't work in there for some reason.

Answer 1

I remade Roberto's code, but rewritten in Python3 (just minor changes).

You can copy-and-paste as is for an easy demonstration .py file, or just copy the function "search_for_file_path" (and associated imports) and place into your program as a function.

import tkinter
from tkinter import filedialog
import os

root = tkinter.Tk()
root.withdraw() #use to hide tkinter window

def search_for_file_path ():
    currdir = os.getcwd()
    tempdir = filedialog.askdirectory(parent=root, initialdir=currdir, title='Please select a directory')
    if len(tempdir) > 0:
        print ("You chose: %s" % tempdir)
    return tempdir


file_path_variable = search_for_file_path()
print ("\nfile_path_variable = ", file_path_variable)

Answer 2

I think TkFileDialog might be useful for you.

import Tkinter
import tkFileDialog
import os

root = Tkinter.Tk()
root.withdraw() #use to hide tkinter window

currdir = os.getcwd()
tempdir = tkFileDialog.askdirectory(parent=root, initialdir=currdir, title='Please select a directory')
if len(tempdir) > 0:
    print "You chose %s" % tempdir

EDIT: this link has some more examples

Answer 3

In python 3 it has been renamed to filedialog. you can access a folder pass by askdirectory method(event) as follows. If you want to choose a file path use askopenfilename

import tkinter 
from tkinter import messagebox
from tkinter import filedialog

main_win = tkinter.Tk()
main_win.geometry("1000x500")
main_win.sourceFolder = ''
main_win.sourceFile = ''
def chooseDir():
    main_win.sourceFolder =  filedialog.askdirectory(parent=main_win, initialdir= "/", title='Please select a directory')

b_chooseDir = tkinter.Button(main_win, text = "Chose Folder", width = 20, height = 3, command = chooseDir)
b_chooseDir.place(x = 50,y = 50)
b_chooseDir.width = 100


def chooseFile():
    main_win.sourceFile = filedialog.askopenfilename(parent=main_win, initialdir= "/", title='Please select a directory')

b_chooseFile = tkinter.Button(main_win, text = "Chose File", width = 20, height = 3, command = chooseFile)
b_chooseFile.place(x = 250,y = 50)
b_chooseFile.width = 100

main_win.mainloop()
print(main_win.sourceFolder)
print(main_win.sourceFile )

Note: the value of variables persist even after closing the main_win. However, you need to use the variable as an attribute of the main_win i.e.

main_win.sourceFolder