📦 Zipping and Unzipping Files with Python

When working with multiple files or large datasets, compressing files into zip archives and later extracting them is a common task. Python makes this super easy using built-in modules like zipfile.

In this tutorial, we'll cover:

✅ Zipping files and directories
✅ Unzipping and extracting content
✅ Working with password-protected zip files
✅ Real-world use cases

🧰 What You’ll Need

Python 3.x
Basic file handling skills
Some zip files to work with

📂 Zipping Files and Directories

To create a zip archive of a file or folder, we’ll use Python’s zipfile module.

1. Zipping a Single File

import zipfile

def zip_file(file_name, zip_name):
    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_name, 'w') as zipf:
        zipf.write(file_name, arcname=file_name.split('/')[-1])
    print(f"✅ {file_name} has been zipped as {zip_name}")

# Usage
zip_file('example.txt', 'example.zip')

'w' mode is for writing a new zip archive.
arcname allows renaming the file within the archive.

2. Zipping Multiple Files

def zip_multiple_files(file_names, zip_name):
    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_name, 'w') as zipf:
        for file in file_names:
            zipf.write(file, arcname=file.split('/')[-1])
    print(f"✅ {zip_name} has been created with files: {', '.join(file_names)}")

# Usage
files = ['file1.txt', 'file2.txt', 'file3.txt']
zip_multiple_files(files, 'multiple_files.zip')

3. Zipping an Entire Directory

You can zip an entire folder and its contents using os.walk() to loop through the directory.

import os

def zip_directory(directory_name, zip_name):
    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_name, 'w') as zipf:
        for foldername, subfolders, filenames in os.walk(directory_name):
            for filename in filenames:
                file_path = os.path.join(foldername, filename)
                arcname = os.path.relpath(file_path, directory_name)
                zipf.write(file_path, arcname)
    print(f"✅ {directory_name} has been zipped as {zip_name}")

# Usage
zip_directory('my_folder', 'my_folder.zip')

📥 Unzipping Files

To extract files from a zip archive, we can also use the zipfile module.

1. Extract All Files from a Zip Archive

def unzip_file(zip_name, extract_to):
    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_name, 'r') as zipf:
        zipf.extractall(extract_to)
    print(f"✅ All files from {zip_name} have been extracted to {extract_to}")

# Usage
unzip_file('example.zip', './extracted_files')

2. Extract a Specific File from a Zip Archive

def unzip_single_file(zip_name, file_name, extract_to):
    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_name, 'r') as zipf:
        zipf.extract(file_name, extract_to)
    print(f"✅ {file_name} has been extracted to {extract_to}")

# Usage
unzip_single_file('example.zip', 'file1.txt', './extracted_files')

3. List All Files in a Zip Archive

def list_files_in_zip(zip_name):
    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_name, 'r') as zipf:
        files = zipf.namelist()
    print(f"Files in {zip_name}: {files}")

# Usage
list_files_in_zip('example.zip')

🔒 Handling Password-Protected Zip Files

To handle password-protected zip files, we can use pyzipper, a third-party package, as the zipfile module doesn't support encrypted archives.

Install pyzipper:

pip install pyzipper

1. Zipping with Password Protection

import pyzipper

def zip_with_password(file_name, zip_name, password):
    with pyzipper.AESZipFile(zip_name, 'w') as zipf:
        zipf.setpassword(password.encode())
        zipf.write(file_name, arcname=file_name.split('/')[-1])
    print(f"✅ {file_name} has been zipped with password protection as {zip_name}")

# Usage
zip_with_password('secret_file.txt', 'protected.zip', 'my_secret_password')

2. Unzipping a Password-Protected File

def unzip_with_password(zip_name, password, extract_to):
    with pyzipper.AESZipFile(zip_name, 'r') as zipf:
        zipf.setpassword(password.encode())
        zipf.extractall(extract_to)
    print(f"✅ Files from {zip_name} have been extracted to {extract_to}")

# Usage
unzip_with_password('protected.zip', 'my_secret_password', './extracted_files')

🔄 Additional Useful Tips

Check if File is a Zip: You can use zipfile.is_zipfile() to verify if a file is a valid zip archive.

if zipfile.is_zipfile('example.zip'):
    print("✅ It's a valid zip file.")
else:
    print("❌ Invalid zip file.")

Zip File Compression: You can control the compression level with zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED (default) or zipfile.ZIP_BZIP2 and zipfile.ZIP_LZMA for higher compression ratios.
```
with zipfile.ZipFile('compressed.zip', 'w', zipfile.ZIP_LZMA) as zipf:
    zipf.write('large_file.txt')
```

💡 Real-World Use Cases

Use Case	Description
📊 Data Storage	Compress large datasets for storage or email delivery
🧰 Backup System	Automate backup of files and directories
🖼️ Image Processing	Zip and email image files for processing
🚚 Sending Multiple Files	Compress logs or multiple reports into a single zip archive for easier sharing

🧠 Final Thoughts

Python makes file compression and extraction extremely simple using the built-in zipfile module and the pyzipper library for password protection. These capabilities are invaluable when managing backups, packaging files for delivery, or automating the compression of large datasets.

By zipping and unzipping files with Python, you can reduce storage size, improve file transfer speed, and create automated workflows for file handling.

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