Windows path in Python

python path string-literals
Gareth picture Gareth · Jun 2, 2010 · Viewed 309.2k times · Source

What is the best way to represent a Windows directory, for example "C:\meshes\as"? I have been trying to modify a script but it never works because I can't seem to get the directory right, I assume because of the '\' acting as escape character?

Answer

joaquin picture joaquin · Jun 2, 2010

you can use always:

'C:/mydir'

this works both in linux and windows. Other posibility is

'C:\\mydir'

if you have problems with some names you can also try raw string literals:

r'C:\mydir'

however best practice is to use the os.path module functions that always select the correct configuration for your OS:

os.path.join(mydir, myfile)

From python 3.4 you can also use the pathlib module. This is equivelent to the above:

pathlib.Path(mydir, myfile)

or

pathlib.Path(mydir) / myfile

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