How to List Files in a Zip Archive in Python

Use Python's zipfile module to open a zip file and call namelist() on the ZipFile object to get a list of all files inside. This method returns a list of file names as strings.

Syntax

To list files in a zip archive, first import the zipfile module. Then open the zip file using zipfile.ZipFile('filename.zip'). Use the namelist() method on the ZipFile object to get a list of all file names inside the archive.

• zipfile.ZipFile(file, mode='r'): Opens the zip file in read mode.
• namelist(): Returns a list of all file names in the zip archive.

python

import zipfile

with zipfile.ZipFile('example.zip', 'r') as zip_ref:
    file_names = zip_ref.namelist()

Example

This example shows how to open a zip file named example.zip and print all the file names inside it.

python

import zipfile

with zipfile.ZipFile('example.zip', 'r') as zip_ref:
    files = zip_ref.namelist()
    for file in files:
        print(file)

Output

document.txt
images/photo.png
notes/todo.txt

Common Pitfalls

Some common mistakes when listing files in a zip archive include:

• Not opening the zip file in read mode ('r'), which is required to list files.
• Forgetting to use a context manager (with statement), which can leave the file open.
• Assuming namelist() returns file objects instead of file names (it returns strings).

python

import zipfile

# Wrong: opening in write mode will not allow listing
# with zipfile.ZipFile('example.zip', 'w') as zip_ref:
#     print(zip_ref.namelist())

# Right way:
with zipfile.ZipFile('example.zip', 'r') as zip_ref:
    print(zip_ref.namelist())

Quick Reference

Method	Description
zipfile.ZipFile(file, mode='r')	Open a zip file for reading
namelist()	Return a list of all file names in the zip archive
in operator	Check if a file name exists in the archive
extract(file)	Extract a specific file from the archive

Key Takeaways

Use zipfile.ZipFile with mode 'r' to open zip files for reading.

Call namelist() on the ZipFile object to get all file names inside the archive.

Always use a with statement to safely open and close the zip file.

namelist() returns a list of strings representing file paths inside the zip.

Avoid opening the zip file in write mode when only listing files.