What is the difference between os.path.basename() and os.path.dirname()?
I already searched for answers and read some links, but didn't understand. Can anyone give a simple explanation?
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Both functions use the os.path.split(path) function to split the pathname path into a pair; (head, tail).
The os.path.dirname(path) function returns the head of the path.
E.g.: The dirname of '/foo/bar/item' is '/foo/bar'.
The os.path.basename(path) function returns the tail of the path.
E.g.: The basename of '/foo/bar/item' returns 'item'
From: http://docs.python.org/2/library/os.path.html#os.path.basename
To summarize what was mentioned by Breno above
Say you have a variable with a path to a file
path = '/home/User/Desktop/myfile.py'
os.path.basename(path) returns the string 'myfile.py'
and
os.path.dirname(path) returns the string '/home/User/Desktop' (without a trailing slash '/')
These functions are used when you have to get the filename/directory name given a full path name.
In case the file path is just the file name (e.g. instead of path = '/home/User/Desktop/myfile.py' you just have myfile.py), os.path.dirname(path) returns an empty string.
Source: Stackoverflow.com