Python Get File Size in KB, MB or GB

Python Get File Size : In this article we will see how to get the size of a file on python and convert it into a unit of measure adapted to our understanding.

Get file size using os.path.getsize()

In the OS module, the getsize() function allows to get the size of a file in bytes, To use it nothing more simple :

import os

fileSize = os.path.getsize(file_path)
 

We are going to create a function that allows us to retrieve the size of the file passed as a parameter of the function :

import os

def get_file_size(file_path):
    size = os.path.getsize(file_path)
    return size

file_path = 'amiradata_example.csv'
size = get_file_size(file_path)
print('File size: '+ str(size) +' bytes')
 

Output :

File size: 26187953 bytes

The getsize() function returned the size in bytes of the amiradata_example.csv file.

Get file size using os.stat().st_size

the OS module offers a second way to do this by directly retrieving the statistics from the file . the syntax is as follows :

os.stat(file).st_size
 

Note: the stat() function allows you to retrieve a lot of information about the file, in particular the date of creation, modification and of course the size of the file.

Here is the code to recover the size of the amiradata_example.csv file :

import os

def get_file_size_2(file):

    stat = os.stat(file)
    print(stat)
    size = stat.st_size
    return size


file_path = 'amiradata_example.csv'

size = get_file_size_2(file_path)
print('File size: ' + str(size) + ' bytes')
 

Output:

os.stat_result(st_mode=33206, st_ino=16044073672847566, st_dev=606155843, st_nlink=1, st_uid=0, st_gid=0, st_size=26187953, st_atime=1589472190, st_mtime=1589472190, st_ctime=1589472134)
File size: 26187953 bytes

We get the same result as the previous function ( which is rather reassuring :))

Get size using pathlib.Path.stat().st_size

the pathlib module also allows to get the size of the file passed in :

size = Path(file_path).stat().st_size
 

Let’s take again our csv file and create the following function :

from pathlib import Path

def get_file_size_3(file):
    
    size = Path(file).stat().st_size
    return size

file = 'amiradata_example.csv'

size = get_file_size_3(file)
print('File size: ' + str(size) + ' bytes')
 

Output :

File size: 26187953 bytes

Get file size in KiloBytes, MegaBytes or GigaBytes

Here is a conversion table to switch from bytes to another unit of measurement :

To convert 26187953 bytes into kilobytes or megabytes, we have created this function which allows to convert the size into Mb, Kb or Gb (We have rounded off to 3 decimal places for ease of reading, but you can remove it if you need to):

import os
from pathlib import Path


def get_file_size(file_path):
    size = os.path.getsize(file_path)
    return size


def get_file_size_2(file):
    stat = os.stat(file)
    size = stat.st_size
    return size


def get_file_size_3(file):
    size = Path(file).stat().st_size
    return size


def convert_bytes(size, unit=None):
    if unit == "KB":
        return print('File size: ' + str(round(size / 1024, 3)) + ' Kilobytes')
    elif unit == "MB":
        return print('File size: ' + str(round(size / (1024 * 1024), 3)) + ' Megabytes')
    elif unit == "GB":
        return print('File size: ' + str(round(size / (1024 * 1024 * 1024), 3)) + ' Gigabytes')
    else:
        return print('File size: ' + str(size) + ' bytes')


file = 'amiradata_example.csv'

print("Using 1st method : ")
size = get_file_size(file)

convert_bytes(size)
convert_bytes(size, "KB")
convert_bytes(size, "MB")
convert_bytes(size, "GB")

print("Using Second method : ")
size = get_file_size_2(file)

convert_bytes(size)
convert_bytes(size, "KB")
convert_bytes(size, "MB")
convert_bytes(size, "GB")

print("Using third method : ")
size = get_file_size_3(file)

convert_bytes(size)
convert_bytes(size, "KB")
convert_bytes(size, "MB")
convert_bytes(size, "GB")
 

Conclusion

There are several ways to retrieve the size of a python file, I won’t advise you one more than the other as I find them all simple to use and produce the same result so it’s up to you.

I hope this tutorial has helped you learn more about the subject.

If you want to learn more about python, you can read this book (As an Amazon Partner, I make a profit on qualifying purchases) :

See you soon!

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