[python] How do I get the full path of the current file's directory?

I want to get the current file's directory path. I tried:

>>> os.path.abspath(__file__)
'C:\\python27\\test.py'

But how can I retrieve the directory's path?

For example:

'C:\\python27\\'

USEFUL PATH PROPERTIES IN PYTHON:

 from pathlib import Path

    #Returns the path of the directory, where your script file is placed
    mypath = Path().absolute()
    print('Absolute path : {}'.format(mypath))

    #if you want to go to any other file inside the subdirectories of the directory path got from above method
    filePath = mypath/'data'/'fuel_econ.csv'
    print('File path : {}'.format(filePath))

    #To check if file present in that directory or Not
    isfileExist = filePath.exists()
    print('isfileExist : {}'.format(isfileExist))

    #To check if the path is a directory or a File
    isadirectory = filePath.is_dir()
    print('isadirectory : {}'.format(isadirectory))

    #To get the extension of the file
    fileExtension = mypath/'data'/'fuel_econ.csv'
    print('File extension : {}'.format(filePath.suffix))

OUTPUT: ABSOLUTE PATH IS THE PATH WHERE YOUR PYTHON FILE IS PLACED

Absolute path : D:\Study\Machine Learning\Jupitor Notebook\JupytorNotebookTest2\Udacity_Scripts\Matplotlib and seaborn Part2

File path : D:\Study\Machine Learning\Jupitor Notebook\JupytorNotebookTest2\Udacity_Scripts\Matplotlib and seaborn Part2\data\fuel_econ.csv

isfileExist : True

isadirectory : False

File extension : .csv

I found the following commands will all return the full path of the parent directory of a Python 3.6 script.

Python 3.6 Script:

#!/usr/bin/env python3.6
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from pathlib import Path

#Get the absolute path of a Python3.6 script
dir1 = Path().resolve()  #Make the path absolute, resolving any symlinks.
dir2 = Path().absolute() #See @RonKalian answer 
dir3 = Path(__file__).parent.absolute() #See @Arminius answer 

print(f'dir1={dir1}\ndir2={dir2}\ndir3={dir3}')

Explanation links: .resolve(), .absolute(), Path(file).parent().absolute()

You can use os and os.path library easily as follows

import os
os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.getcwd()))

os.path.dirname returns upper directory from current one. It lets us change to an upper level without passing any file argument and without knowing absolute path.

os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(myfilename))

## IMPORT MODULES
import os

## CALCULATE FILEPATH VARIABLE
filepath = os.path.abspath('') ## ~ os.getcwd()
## TEST TO MAKE SURE os.getcwd() is EQUIVALENT ALWAYS..
## ..OR DIFFERENT IN SOME CIRCUMSTANCES

In Python 3.x I do:

from pathlib import Path

path = Path(__file__).parent.absolute()

Explanation:

• Path(__file__) is the path to the current file.
• .parent gives you the directory the file is in.
• .absolute() gives you the full absolute path to it.

Using pathlib is the modern way to work with paths. If you need it as a string later for some reason, just do str(path).

import os
print os.path.dirname(__file__)

IPython has a magic command %pwd to get the present working directory. It can be used in following way:

from IPython.terminal.embed import InteractiveShellEmbed

ip_shell = InteractiveShellEmbed()

present_working_directory = ip_shell.magic("%pwd")

On IPython Jupyter Notebook %pwd can be used directly as following:

present_working_directory = %pwd

Let's assume you have the following directory structure: -

main/ fold1 fold2 fold3...

folders = glob.glob("main/fold*")

for fold in folders:
    abspath = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(fold))
    fullpath = os.path.join(abspath, sch)
    print(fullpath)

Try this:

import os
dir_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))

Using Path is the recommended way since Python 3:

from pathlib import Path
print("File      Path:", Path(__file__).absolute())
print("Directory Path:", Path().absolute()) # Directory of current working directory, not __file__  

Documentation: pathlib

Note: If using Jupyter Notebook, __file__ doesn't return expected value, so Path().absolute() has to be used.

If you just want to see the current working directory

import os
print(os.getcwd())

If you want to change the current working directory

os.chdir(path)

path is a string containing the required path to be moved. e.g.

path = "C:\\Users\\xyz\\Desktop\\move here"

To keep the migration consistency across platforms (macOS/Windows/Linux), try:

path = r'%s' % os.getcwd().replace('\\','/')

System: MacOS

Version: Python 3.6 w/ Anaconda

import os

rootpath = os.getcwd()

os.chdir(rootpath)

I have made a function to use when running python under IIS in CGI in order to get the current folder:

import os 
   def getLocalFolder():
        path=str(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))).split('\\')
        return path[len(path)-1]