Chilkat2-Python

Extract ZIP Files Without Preserving Directory Paths Using DiscardPaths

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This example demonstrates how to use the DiscardPaths property to extract files from a ZIP archive without recreating the stored directory structure.

When DiscardPaths is set to _TRUE_, all extracted files are written directly into the target extraction directory, and any stored ZIP path information is ignored.

This is useful when:

• Flattening ZIP contents into a single directory
• Ignoring stored subdirectory structures during extraction
• Extracting only the files themselves without recreating folders

Suppose the ZIP archive contains:

docs/readme.txt
docs/manual.pdf
images/logo.png

Normally, extracting the ZIP would create:

output/docs/readme.txt
output/docs/manual.pdf
output/images/logo.png

But when DiscardPaths is set to _TRUE_, the extracted files become:

output/readme.txt
output/manual.pdf
output/logo.png

The stored ZIP directory paths are discarded during extraction.

Chilkat2-Python

import sys
import chilkat2

success = False

success = False

zip = chilkat2.Zip()

# Open an existing ZIP archive.
success = zip.OpenZip("example.zip")
if (success == False):
    print(zip.LastErrorText)
    sys.exit()

# Discard stored ZIP paths during extraction.
# 
# When DiscardPaths = True, all files are extracted
# directly into the target directory without recreating
# the ZIP directory structure.
zip.DiscardPaths = True

# Extract all files to the output directory.
# 
# Even if the ZIP contains:
# 
#     docs/readme.txt
#     docs/manual.pdf
#     images/logo.png
# 
# The extracted files become:
# 
#     c:/output/readme.txt
#     c:/output/manual.pdf
#     c:/output/logo.png
# 
numFilesUnzipped = zip.Unzip("c:/output")

if (numFilesUnzipped < 0):
    print(zip.LastErrorText)
    sys.exit()

print("Number of files extracted = " + str(numFilesUnzipped))

zip.CloseZip()

print("Files extracted successfully.")