How to browse and select file in Python

Here we will be learning how to browse a file and collect file path in Python Tkinter.

To browse a file we need to import filedialog from tkinter

from tkinter import filedialog

below is the code to create a browse button and file path entry widget

mw = Tk()
mw.geometry('500x50+100+100')
mw.title("AETies : Automation Expert Technologies")
sel_file = Label(mw, text='file', padx=5).pack(side=LEFT)
file_path = Entry(mw, width=42, fg='grey')
file_path.insert(0, "Please select a file")
file_path.pack(side=LEFT)
browse_Button = Button(mw, text=' Browse ', fg='red', command=browse_file, padx=5).pack(side=LEFT)

mainloop()

once we click on browse button, we will call browse_file function, inside which filedialog will perform operation to ask file to open

below is the code

select_file_path = filedialog.askopenfilename(initialdir="./", title="AETies : select a file",filetypes=file_types)

via filedialod, askopenfilename() method will be called. 

It will return the selected file path with name of file.

lets talk about options to pass

• initialdir =  this will accept a path, to be open  for browse window, like any particular folder or self directory.
• title = this helps to provide browse window a name.
• filetypes = here types of file to open can be provided, as mentioned below 

file_types = (("python", "*.py"), ("text", "*.txt"), ("xml", "*.xml"), ("all_types", "*.*"))

now we will select a file

once you select the file name.

below is the full code to ask a file to browse, browse a file and show the path on screen.

 #program

 file_types = (("python", "*.py"), ("text", "*.txt"), ("xml", "*.xml"), ("all_types", "*.*"))

 try :
     from Tkinter import *           # supports Python 2
 except:
     from tkinter import *           # supports Python 3
     from tkinter import filedialog

 def browse_file():
     file_path.delete(0, END)
     file_path.config(fg='black')

     select_file_path = filedialog.askopenfilename(initialdir="./", title="AETies : select a file",filetypes=file_types)

     file_path.insert(0, select_file_path)

 mw = Tk()
 mw.geometry('500x50+100+100')
 mw.title("AETies : Automation Expert Technologies")
 sel_file = Label(mw, text='file', padx=5).pack(side=LEFT)
 file_path = Entry(mw, width=42, fg='grey')
 file_path.insert(0, "Please select a file")
 file_path.pack(side=LEFT)
 browse_Button = Button(mw, text=' Browse ', fg='red', command=browse_file, padx=5).pack(side=LEFT)

 mainloop()

also check

how to browse and select directory in Python GUI