count number of file in a directory python

Question

The following syntax was used to get the number of files in my directory , but can you please help me understand this syntax.( how does ".next()[2]" help in calculating the python.) I am a newbie in python please help me with it.

len(os.walk(path).next()[2])

Answer 1

If you want to understand this syntax, I suggest you decompose it as follows:

os.walk(path) will return a generator (basically an iterator)

<generator object walk at 0x7f5e5acbd4b0>

os.walk is supposed to browse all levels of directories, you're asking for next() to get the first level (and not the subdirectories)

os.walk(path).next()

This will return:

(
    [0] -> The path you passed
    [1] -> list of All the first level directories in your path
    [2] -> list of All the first level files
)

In order to get the files, you'll ask for the element of index [2] in your list

os.walk(path).next()[2]

And finally so you can count the number of these elements, you use len (stands for length)

Here you go:

len(os.walk(path).next()[2])

Answer 2

To count the number of files in a directory you can use listdir() method.

import os
files = os.listdir()
print len(files)