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Python Fnmatch Module

The fnmatch module provides support for Unix shell-style wildcards, which are not the same as regular expressions (which are documented in the re module). The special characters used in shell-style wildcards are:

  • *: Matches everything.
  • ?: Matches any single character.
  • [seq]: Matches any character in seq.
  • [!seq]: Matches any character not in seq.

Importing the Module

import fnmatch

Matching Filenames

fnmatch()

Test whether the filename string matches the pattern string, returning True or False. Note that the case-sensitivity of this function depends on the operating system.

import fnmatch
import os

pattern = '*.py'
print(fnmatch.fnmatch('script.py', pattern)) # True
print(fnmatch.fnmatch('script.txt', pattern)) # False

fnmatchcase()

Test whether the filename matches the pattern, but the comparison is case-sensitive regardless of the operating system.

import fnmatch

print(fnmatch.fnmatchcase('Script.py', '*.py')) # False
print(fnmatch.fnmatchcase('script.py', '*.py')) # True

Filtering Lists

filter()

Return the subset of the list of names that match the pattern. It is the same as [n for n in names if fnmatch(n, pattern)], but implemented more efficiently.

import fnmatch
import os

files = ['script.py', 'data.csv', 'image.png', 'test.py']
py_files = fnmatch.filter(files, '*.py')

print(py_files)
# Output: ['script.py', 'test.py']

Translating to Regex

translate()

Return the shell-style pattern converted to a regular expression for using with re.match().

import fnmatch
import re

regex = fnmatch.translate('*.txt')
print(regex)
# Output (may vary slightly): (?s:.*\.txt)\Z

re_obj = re.compile(regex)
print(bool(re_obj.match('foobar.txt'))) # True

programming/python/python

Created: March 17, 2026 • Last Modified: January 28, 2026