Using Python's os Module to Delete Duplicate Files

In everyday computing, duplicate files often accumulate, making manual cleanup tedious, especially when many duplicates exist.

This guide introduces a convenient method using Python to delete duplicate files.

Python's built‑in os module provides functions for file system operations; by listing directory contents and removing unwanted files with os.remove(path) , duplicates can be eliminated.

The example code below demonstrates loading the os library, listing files in a specified directory, selecting files to delete, constructing full file paths with os.path.join , and calling os.remove to delete them, followed by printing the remaining files.

<code>import os  # load file management library
path = "D:\\projects"
files = os.listdir(path)    # list all file names in the path as a list
print(type(files))          # verify the type of files
print("路径:{} 下拥有的文件是{}".format(path, files))  # print all file names
files_delete = files[0:2]   # select files to delete (can also use input)
print(files_delete)         # print selected file names
for file_name in files_delete:
    file_path = os.path.join(path, file_name)  # join path and file name
    os.remove(file_path)                       # delete the file
print("删除重复文件之后， path下的文件名有哪些:", os.listdir(path))  # list remaining files</code>

After running the script, the duplicate files are removed from the specified directory.

Additional notes explain that os.listdir(path) returns a list of file names, os.path.join concatenates directory and file name into a full path, and os.remove(path) deletes the file at the given path.