[python] How can I extract the folder path from file path in Python?

I would like to get just the folder path from the full path to a file.

For example T:\Data\DBDesign\DBDesign_93_v141b.mdb and I would like to get just T:\Data\DBDesign (excluding the \DBDesign_93_v141b.mdb).

I have tried something like this:

existGDBPath = r'T:\Data\DBDesign\DBDesign_93_v141b.mdb'
wkspFldr = str(existGDBPath.split('\\')[0:-1])
print wkspFldr 

but it gave me a result like this:

['T:', 'Data', 'DBDesign']

which is not the result that I require (being T:\Data\DBDesign).

Any ideas on how I can get the path to my file?

The built-in submodule os.path has a function for that very task.

import os
os.path.dirname('T:\Data\DBDesign\DBDesign_93_v141b.mdb')

Anyone trying to do this in the ESRI GIS Table field calculator interface can do this with the Python parser:

PathToContainingFolder =

"\\".join(!FullFilePathWithFileName!.split("\\")[0:-1])

so that

\Users\me\Desktop\New folder\file.txt

becomes

\Users\me\Desktop\New folder

Here is my little utility helper for splitting paths int file, path tokens:

import os    
# usage: file, path = splitPath(s)
def splitPath(s):
    f = os.path.basename(s)
    p = s[:-(len(f))-1]
    return f, p

WITH PATHLIB MODULE (UPDATED ANSWER)

One should consider using pathlib for new development. It is in the stdlib for Python3.4, but available on PyPI for earlier versions. This library provides a more object-orented method to manipulate paths <opinion> and is much easier read and program with </opinion>.

>>> import pathlib
>>> existGDBPath = pathlib.Path(r'T:\Data\DBDesign\DBDesign_93_v141b.mdb')
>>> wkspFldr = existGDBPath.parent
>>> print wkspFldr
Path('T:\Data\DBDesign')

WITH OS MODULE

Use the os.path module:

>>> import os
>>> existGDBPath = r'T:\Data\DBDesign\DBDesign_93_v141b.mdb'
>>> wkspFldr = os.path.dirname(existGDBPath)
>>> print wkspFldr 
'T:\Data\DBDesign'

You can go ahead and assume that if you need to do some sort of filename manipulation it's already been implemented in os.path. If not, you'll still probably need to use this module as the building block.

Here is the code:

import os
existGDBPath = r'T:\Data\DBDesign\DBDesign_93_v141b.mdb'
wkspFldr = os.path.dirname(existGDBPath)
print wkspFldr # T:\Data\DBDesign