• os.path the module used for common pathname manipulation.
• This module implements some useful functions on pathnames.
• Different operating systems have different pathname conventions.

different path styles:

- posixpath for UNIX-style paths
- ntpath for Windows paths
- macpath for old-style MacOS paths

• Instead of directly importing the os.path name module first import os root module and access os.path from it.

#import os module
import os

use os.path for further operation

Get documentation of os.path

#import os module
import os

#Get help Documentation of os.path
print(help(os.path))

#Get Avialable Function list in os.path module
print(dir(os.path))

Important Function in os.path Module

• Return a period

• An attribute reference is a primary followed by a period and a name:

  attributeref ::= primary "." identifier

primary must evaluate to an object of a type that supports attribute references, which most objects do. This object is then asked to produce the attribute whose name is the identifier

Example:

#import os

#get curdir 
print(os.path.curdir)

Output:

.

• Return an absolute path.
• Normally it joins using normspath os.getcwd() and path and return it.

Syntax:

os.path.abspath(path)

# path parameter is mandatory

Example:

import os

#path
path=r"C:/Test"
print(os.path.abspath(path))

Output:

currentdirectorypath/C:/Test

• Returns the lat component of given path.

Consider following example

fullpath:"C:/Test/final"
basename:final

full_path:"C:/Test/final/"
basename:

full_path:"C:/Test/final/filename.txt"
basename:filename.txt

Syntax:

os.path.basename(path)

Example:

#Import Required module
import os

#Full path
full_path=r"C:/Test/final/filename.txt"

#Get basename
basename=os.path.basename(full_path)

print(basename)

Output:

filename.txt

• From 2 given path, returns the longest common sub-path. Consider

path1="C:/test/folder/amaze"
path2="C:/test/folder"

commonpath:C:/test/folder

Syntax:

os.path.commonpath(['path1','path2','path3'])

Example:

# import require module
import os

#path list
paths=['/usr/lib', '/usr/local/lib']

#To get Common Path
common=os.path.commonpath(paths)

#print the commonpath
print(common)

Ouput:

/usr

• From a list of pathnames, returns the longest common leading path.

Consider following Example

path1="C:/test/folder/amaze"
path2="C:/test/fntl/test"

commonprefix path:C:/test/f

Syntax:

os.path.commonprefix(['path1','path2'])

Example:

# import require dmodule
import os

#Initialize paths
path1="C:/test/folder/amaze"
path2="C:/test/fntl/test"

#get common prefix in path
comonprefix=os.path.commonprefix([path1,path2])

#print Common prefix path
print(comonprefix)

OutPut:

C:/test/f

• Return the directory path of given pathname

Consider

pathname="C:/test/folder/amaze.txt"
dirname:C:/test/folder

Syntax:

os.path.dirname('path')

Example:

# import require dmodule
import os

#Initialize paths
path1="C:/test/folder/amaze.txt"

#Get dir name
name=os.path.dirname(path1)


#print the dirname
print(name)

OutPut:

C:/test/folder

• Return True if the given pathname is existed otherwise return False

Syntax:

os.path.exists('pathname')

Example:

import os
path=r"C:/test/folder/amaze.txt"
print(os.path.exists(path))

Output:

False

• Return True if the given pathname is a file

Syntax:

os.path.isfile(path)

Example:

import os
path=r"C:/test/folder/amaze.txt"
print(os.path.isfile(path))

#Result is True if that file exists and it is a file otherwise False

Output:

True

• Return True if the given pathname is a directory

Syntax:

os.path.isdir(path)

Example:

import os
path=r"C:/test/folder"
print(os.path.isdir(path))

#Result is True if that directory exists and it is a directory otherwise False

Output:

True

• join two or more pathname paths, by inserting '/' as needed.

Syntax:

os.path.join(path1,path2)

Example:

#import required module
import os

path1=r"c:"
path2=r"foldername"

#join path1 and path2
joined_path=os.path.join(path1,path2)

print(joined_path)

Output:

c:/foldername

• split(path) Return a tuple containing (head,tail)

tail: where the tail is everything after the final slash may be empty sometime

• The tail part will never contain a slash.
• If the path is empty, both head and tail are empty.

Syntax:

os.path.split()

Example:

#import required module
import os

#Simple Example 1
path1=r"C:/Test/help.txt"
splited_path1=os.path.split(path1)
print(splited_path1)
#Result:('C:/Test', 'help.txt')

#Example 2
path2=r"C:/Test/"
splited_path2=os.path.split(path2)
print(splited_path2)
#Result:('C:/Test', '')

#Example 3
path3=r""
splited_path3=os.path.split(path3)
print(splited_path3)
#Result:('', '')

Output:

('C:/Test', 'help.txt')
('C:/Test', '')
('', '')

Some Other Important os.path available Function

12.splitdrive:

• Split a pathname into drive and path,

13.splittext

• Split the extension from a pathname.

14.relpath(path, start=os.curdir)

• Return a relative filepath to path either from the current directory or from an optional start directory