QFileDialog that accepts a single file or a single directory

Question

Is it possible to show a QFileDialog where the user can select a file or a directory, either one?

QFileDialog::getOpenFileName() accepts only files, while QFileDialog::getExistingDirectory() is directories-only, but I need to show a file dialog that can accept both a file or a directory (it makes sense for my program). QFileDialog::​Options didn't have anything promising.

Answer 1

Quite old question but I think I have a simpler solution than most for the lazy ones. You can connect the signal currentChanged of QFileDialog with a function that dynamically changes the fileMode.

//header
class my_main_win:public QMainWindow  
{
private:
    QFileDialog file_dialog;    
}

//constructor 

my_main_win(QWidget * parent):QMainWindow(parent)
{
    connect(&file_dialog,QFileDialog::currentChanged,this,[&](const QString & str)
        {
        QFileInfo info(str);
        if(info.isFile())
            file_dialog.setFileMode(QFileDialog::ExistingFile);
        else if(info.isDir())
            file_dialog.setFileMode(QFileDialog::Directory);
    });
}

And then simply call file_dialog as you would.

if(file_dialog.exec()){
    QStringList dir_names=file_dialog.selectedFiles():
}

Answer 2

Connect to the currentChanged signal and then set the file mode to the currently selected item (directory or file). This is a Python3 implementation:

class GroupFileObjectDialog(QFileDialog):

    def __init__(self, parent):
        super().__init__(parent)
        self.setOption(QFileDialog.DontUseNativeDialog)
        self.setFileMode(QFileDialog.Directory)
        self.currentChanged.connect(self._selected)

    def _selected(self,name):
        if os.path.isdir(name):
            self.setFileMode(QFileDialog.Directory)
        else:
            self.setFileMode(QFileDialog.ExistingFile)

Tested on PyQt 5.14 running on linux / Ubuntu18.04.