10.1. File Path Relative

  • Python works with both relative and absolute path

  • Path is relative to currently running script

  • Path separator \ (backslash) is used on Windows

  • Path separator / (slash) is used on *nix operating systems: Linux, macOS, BSD and other POSIX compliant OSes (excluding older versions of Windows)

  • In newer Windows versions both \ and / works the same

  • Relative paths works the same on Windows and *nix (Linux, macOS, BSD, etc.)

10.1.1. Current Directory

  • Path is relative to currently running script

  • . - Current directory

>>> FILE = 'myfile.txt'
>>> FILE = 'data/myfile.txt'

>>> FILE = './myfile.txt'
>>> FILE = './data/myfile.txt'

10.1.2. Upper Directory

  • Path is relative to currently running script

  • .. - Parent directory

>>> FILE = '../myfile.txt'
>>> FILE = '../data/myfile.txt'

>>> FILE = '../../myfile.txt'
>>> FILE = '../../data/myfile.txt'

10.1.3. Good Practices

  • Never hardcode paths, use constant as a file name or file path

  • Convention (singular form): FILE, FILENAME, FILEPATH, PATH

  • Convention (plural form): FILES, FILENAMES, FILEPATHS, PATHS

  • Note, that PATH is usually used for other purposes (sys.path or os.getenv('PATH'))

>>> FILE = 'myfile.txt'

>>> FILES = [
...     'myfile.txt',
...     'myfile.csv',
... ]