Python Path: os.path Examples

Use path methods found in the os.path module. These methods test file existence, size and dates.

Path. A file system stores information about its files. With the os.path module in Python, we access this information. Many methods are available here.

We detect whether a file is present with path.exists. We read dates, get sizes and list file names. We split and join paths. We can even find a common prefix of 2 paths.

Exists. This example uses the path.exists method. We pass a string containing a file's location on the system disk. If the file does not exist, path.exists returns false.

Tip: This method can be used to avoid IOErrors that occur when a program tries to open a file that does not exist.

IOError

Python program that uses exists from os import path # See if this file exists. # ... Write a custom message based on the result. if path.exists("/enable1.txt"): print("File exists") else: print("File not found, sorry") Output File exists

Getsize. How many bytes are in a file? There are several ways to get this information. We could read in the file and count the bytes. But the path.getsize() method is simpler.

Bytes: The path.getsize method returns a numeric figure. This is the byte count of the target file.

Note: The returned value is in bytes, not megabytes. To change the number to megabytes, we would need to divide it.

Numbers, Divide

Python program that uses getsize from os import path # Get size of this text file. size = path.getsize("/enable1.txt") # Display the size in bytes. print(size) Output 1916146

Commonprefix. The path module includes a method called commonprefix. This method receives a list of paths. It scans these strings and returns the longest shared common prefix.List

Warning: Commonprefix does no validation—the prefix may not be a valid path. Be careful with invalid data.

Here: We create an empty list and then append three paths two it. Then, the commonprefix method returns the longest prefix.

Note: It returns the name of the enclosing folder of all the files. It omits the nested folder.

Python program that uses commonprefix from os import path # Add paths to a list. paths = [] paths.append("C:\directory\name") paths.append("C:\directory\image") paths.append("C:\directory\folder\index") # Get common prefix of the paths. prefix = path.commonprefix(paths) print(prefix) Output C:\directory

List files. How can we get a list of the files in a directory? The os.listdir method is helpful here. It receives a directory path. It returns a list of the file names in the directory.

Tip: There are just file names, not paths. To open these files, we must combine the file name with the path.

Python program that lists files in folder import os # Get all files in this directory. list = os.listdir("C:\\programs\\") print(list) Output ['file.php', 'file.pl', 'file.py', 'file.rb']

Join. This method combines paths. It receives two or more string arguments and combines them in an "intelligent" way. It will, for example, add a slash to the end of one argument.

Tip: We access the join method by using its complete, composite name os.path.join. This requires no "from" in the import directive.

Python program that uses join import os # Join directory name not including slash. result = os.path.join("C:\\programs", "file.py") print(result) # Join directory name with trailing slash. result = os.path.join("C:\\programs\\", "file.py") print(result) Output C:\programs\file.py C:\programs\file.py

Split. With path.split we can separate the "folder" from the "file name." Pass a path string to path.split. It returns a tuple with two parts.

First part: The first part of the returned tuple is the folder path with no file name on it. The end slash is omitted.

Second part: This is the file name. So it will be something like file.txt. It includes the extension.

Raw literals: For file paths, please consider using raw string literals with an "r" prefix (unlike many of the examples on this page).

Python program that uses path.split from os import path example = r"C:\programs\file.txt" # Use split on path. result = path.split(example) # The result has two parts. print("Result:", result) # The second part of the tuple is the file name. print("File name:", result[1]) Output Result: ('C:\\programs', 'file.txt') File name: file.txt

Timestamps. The path.getatime, path.getmtime and path.getctime methods get timestamps from files. These are the last-access time, the last-modified time, and (on Windows) the creation time.

Tip: We get path timestamps, and convert them to dates. Please look for the example "File timestamps" in the Datetime page.

Datetime

A reference. The Python site is an ice reference and it should be used constantly when exploring new parts of Python. Here is the os.path material.Path: python.org

Summary. The file system provides useful information about files. The path methods in the os.path module are helpful for retrieving this information.

This influences IO performance. It also yields simpler Python code. Path methods should be used when possible for more reliable execution.

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Python Path: os.path Examples

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