Python os.path module

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Common Usage of os.path module

This article records some very common usages of os.path module in Python.

Since there are few examples in the docs of os.path module, I added examples for all part in this article.

os.path.expanduser()

Expand ~ and ~user constructions. If user or $HOME is unknown, do nothing.

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path = "~/file.txt"
full_path = os.path.expanduser(path)
# return: '/Users/shuo/file.txt'

os.environ["HOME"] = "/home / GeeksForGeeks"
full_path = os.path.expanduser(path)
# return: '/home / GeeksForGeeks/file.txt'

os.path.join()

Join one or more path components intelligently.

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>>> os.path.join('a','b','c')
'a/b/c'
>>> os.path.join('a','b','c','')
'a/b/c/'

os.path.split()

Split the pathname path into a pair, (head, tail) where tail is the last pathname component and head is everything leading up to that.

  • The tail part will never contain a slash;
    • if path ends in a slash, tail will be empty.
    • If there is no slash in path, head will be empty.
    • If path is empty, both head and tail are empty. 
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      >>> test_s="/home/sa2y18/mydocuments"
      >>> os.path.split(test_s)
      ('/home/sa2y18', 'mydocuments')

      >>> test_s=test_s+'/'
      >>> os.path.split(test_s)
      ('/home/sa2y18/mydocuments', '')

Reference

  1. https://docs.python.org/2/library/os.path.html
  2. my gist