I tend to use only forward slashes for paths ('/') and python is happy with it also on windows. In the description of os.path.join it says that is the correct way if you want to go cross-platform. But when I use it I get mixed slashes:
import os a = 'c:/' b = 'myFirstDirectory/' c = 'mySecondDirectory' d = 'myThirdDirectory' e = 'myExecutable.exe' print os.path.join(a, b, c, d, e) # Result: c:/myFirstDirectory/mySecondDirectory\myThirdDirectory\myExecutable.exeIs this correct? Should I check and correct it afterward or there is a better way?
Thanks
EDIT: I also get mixed slashes when asking for paths
import sys for item in sys.path: print item # Result: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2013.5\bin C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2013.5\mentalray\scripts\AETemplates C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2013.5\Python C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2013.5\Python\lib\site-packages C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2013.5\bin\python26.zip\lib-tk C:/Users/nookie/Documents/maya/2013.5-x64/prefs/scripts C:/Users/nookie/Documents/maya/2013.5-x64/scripts C:/Users/nookie/Documents/maya/scripts C:\Program Files\Nuke7.0v4\lib\site-packages C:\Program Files\Nuke7.0v4/plugins/modulesasked May 2, 2013 at 8:31
nookienookie
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You can use .replace() after path.join() to ensure the slashes are correct:
# .replace() all backslashes with forwardslashes print os.path.join(a, b, c, d, e).replace("\\","/")This gives the output:
c:/myFirstDirectory/mySecondDirectory/myThirdDirectory/myExecutable.exeAs @sharpcloud suggested, it would be better to remove the slashes from your input strings, however this is an alternative.
answered Sep 13, 2013 at 0:53
MaximusMaximus
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You are now providing some of the slashes yourself and letting os.path.join pick others. It's better to let python pick all of them or provide them all yourself. Python uses backslashes for the latter part of the path, because backslashes are the default on Windows.
import os a = 'c:' # removed slash b = 'myFirstDirectory' # removed slash c = 'mySecondDirectory' d = 'myThirdDirectory' e = 'myExecutable.exe' print os.path.join(a + os.sep, b, c, d, e)I haven't tested this, but I hope this helps. It's more common to have a base path and only having to join one other element, mostly files.
By the way; you can use os.sep for those moments you want to have the best separator for the operating system python is running on.
Edit: as dash-tom-bang states, apparently for Windows you do need to include a separator for the root of the path. Otherwise you create a relative path instead of an absolute one.
Honest Abe
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answered May 2, 2013 at 8:45
pyrocumuluspyrocumulus
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try using abspath (using python 3)
import os a = 'c:/' b = 'myFirstDirectory/' c = 'mySecondDirectory' d = 'myThirdDirectory' e = 'myExecutable.exe' print(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(a, b, c, d, e)))OUTPUT:
c:\myFirstDirectory\mySecondDirectory\myThirdDirectory\myExecutable.exe Process finished with exit code 0
answered Nov 26, 2016 at 22:59
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EDIT based on comment: path = os.path.normpath(path)
My previous answer lacks the capability of handling escape characters and thus should not be used:
- First, convert the path to an array of folders and file name.
Second, glue them back together using the correct symbol.
import os path = 'c:\www\app\my/folder/file.php' # split the path to parts by either slash symbol: path = re.compile(r"[\/]").split(path) # join the path using the correct slash symbol: path = os.path.join(*path)
answered Mar 24, 2016 at 17:27
oriadamoriadam
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If for any reason you need to provide the paths yourself and you have using anything above python 3.4 you can use pathlib
from pathlib import Path, PurePosixPath a = PurePosixPath('c:/') b = PurePosixPath('myFirstDirectory/') c = 'mySecondDirectory' d = 'myThirdDirectory' e = 'myExecutable.exe' print(a / b / c / d / e) # Result c:/myFirstDirectory/mySecondDirectory/myThirdDirectory/myExecutable.exeI used this when I needed a user to provide the location of an assets directory and my code was looking up using windows path strings
In [1]: from pathlib import Path, PureWindowsPath In [2]: USER_ASSETS_DIR = Path('/asset/dir') # user provides this form environment variable In [3]: SPECIFIC_ASSET = PureWindowsPath('some\\asset') In [4]: USER_ASSETS_DIR / SPECIFIC_ASSET Out[4]: PosixPath('/asset/dir/some/asset')answered Nov 28, 2017 at 11:13
dinosaurwaltzdinosaurwaltz
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os adds slashes for you and makes sure not to duplicate slashes so omit them in your strings
import os # Don't add your own slashes a = 'C:' b = 'myFirstDirectory' c = 'mySecondDirectory' d = 'myThirdDirectory' e = 'myExecutable.exe' print os.path.join(a, b, c, d, e) C:\myFirstDirectory\mySecondDirectory\myThirdDirectory\myExecutable.exeAdditional:
I'm unsure as to why you have mixed slashes in your sys path (have you used a linux os to add some folders?) but try checking
print os.path.isdir(os.path.join('C:','Users','nookie')).
If this is True then os works for your mixed slashes.
Either way, I would avoid hard-coding directory names into your program. Your sys.path for loop is a safe way to pull out these directories. You can then use some string methods, or regex to pick the desired folder.
answered May 2, 2013 at 8:44
ejrbejrb
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Postgres command client psql doesn't accept back slashes even on Windows:
>psql -U user -h 111.111.111.111 -d mydb psql (12.2, server 12.5 . . . . . . mydb=> \i C:\my\path\myscript.sql C:: Permission deniedSo needed to fix it when executing from Python 3.8.6. Didn't want to resort to naive string replacement and used existing function:
script_path = Path(script_dir).resolve() input_sql = f'\\i {script_path.joinpath("myscript.sql").as_posix()}\n'But under the hood it has:
# ...\Programs\Python\Python38\Lib\pathlib.py def as_posix(self): """Return the string representation of the path with forward (/) slashes.""" f = self._flavour return str(self).replace(f.sep, '/')answered Dec 4, 2020 at 22:58
Nick LegendNick Legend
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You can also do this:
import re a = 'c:/' b = 'myFirstDirectory/' c = 'mySecondDirectory' d = 'myThirdDirectory' e = 'myExecutable.exe' joined = os.path.join(a, b, c, d, e) formatted = re.sub(r'/|\\', re.escape(os.sep), joined)This is going to switch all your potentially mixed slashes into OS compliant ones.
I know it's an ancient topic but I couldn't resist. :)
answered Feb 21, 2020 at 16:39
ashrasmunashrasmun
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The way I do it is fairly straightforward: rstrip all the paths from their slashes, regardless of quantity and correctness, add join those paths back using the correct separator.
import os def join_path_regardless_of_separators(*paths): return os.path.sep.join(path.rstrip(r"\/") for path in paths) a = 'c:/' b = 'myFirstDirectory/' c = 'mySecondDirectory' d = 'myThirdDirectory\\\\\\/' e = 'myExecutable.exe' join_path_regardless_of_separators(a, b, c, d, e) >>> 'c:\\myFirstDirectory\\mySecondDirectory\\myThirdDirectory\\myExecutable.exe'Another way to use it, for the same result:
join_path_regardless_of_separators(*"""c:////\\\\ myFirstDirectory/ mySecondDirectory\\\\ myThirdDirectory///// myExecutable.exe """.split())answered Jan 1, 2021 at 22:51
GuimouteGuimoute
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