How do I get the parent directory in Python

Question

Could someone tell me how to get the parent directory of a path in Python in a cross platform way  E g   C  Program Files --- gt  C     and  C   --- gt  C     If the directory doesn t have a parent directory  it returns the directory itself  The question might seem simple but I couldn t dig it up through Google

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An alternate solution of  kender  import os os path dirname os path normpath yourpath     where yourpath is the path you want the parent for   But this solution is not perfect  since it will not handle the case where yourpath is an empty string  or a dot   This other solution will handle more nicely this corner case   import os os path normpath os path join yourpath  os pardir     Here the outputs for every case that can find  Input path is relative    os path dirname os path normpath  a b                gt   a  os path normpath os path join  a b    os pardir      gt   a   os path dirname os path normpath  a b                gt   a  os path normpath os path join  a b   os pardir       gt   a   os path dirname os path normpath  a                  gt     os path normpath os path join  a    os pardir        gt       os path dirname os path normpath  a                  gt     os path normpath os path join  a   os pardir         gt       os path dirname os path normpath                     gt     os path normpath os path join      os pardir         gt        os path dirname os path normpath                     gt     os path normpath os path join     os pardir          gt        os path dirname os path normpath                     gt     os path normpath os path join       os pardir        gt            Input path is absolute  Linux path    os path dirname os path normpath   a b               gt    a  os path normpath os path join   a b   os pardir      gt    a   os path dirname os path normpath   a                 gt      os path normpath os path join   a   os pardir        gt       os path dirname os path normpath                     gt      os path normpath os path join      os pardir         gt

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Using os path dirname    gt  gt  gt  os path dirname r C  Program Files    C      gt  gt  gt  os path dirname  C       C      gt  gt  gt    Caveat  os path dirname   gives different results depending on whether a trailing slash is included in the path  This may or may not be the semantics you want  Cf   kender s answer using os path join yourpath  os pardir

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import os path  os path abspath os pardir

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The Pathlib method  Python 3 4    from pathlib import Path Path  C  Program Files   parent   Returns a Pathlib object   The traditional method  import os path os path dirname  C  Program Files     Returns a string     Which method should I use   Use the traditional method if    You are worried about existing code generating errors if it were to use a Pathlib object   Since Pathlib objects cannot be concatenated with strings   Your Python version is less than 3 4  You need a string  and you received a string  Say for example you have a string representing a filepath  and you want to get the parent directory so you can put it in a JSON string  It would be kind of silly to convert to a Pathlib object and back again for that    If none of the above apply  use Pathlib       What is Pathlib   If you don t know what Pathlib is  the Pathlib module is a terrific module that makes working with files even easier for you  Most if not all of the built in Python modules that work with files will accept both Pathlib objects and strings  I ve highlighted below a couple of examples from the Pathlib documentation that showcase some of the neat things you can do with Pathlib   Navigating inside a directory tree         p   Path   etc       q   p    init d     reboot      q PosixPath   etc init d reboot       q resolve   PosixPath   etc rc d init d halt     Querying path properties         q exists   True     q is dir   False

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os path abspath  D  Dir1 Dir2        gt  gt  gt   D  Dir1    So a    helps

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import os print ------------------------------------------------------------  SITE ROOT   os path dirname os path realpath   file     print  example 1    SITE ROOT  PARENT ROOT os path abspath os path join SITE ROOT  os pardir   print  example 2    PARENT ROOT  GRANDPAPA ROOT os path abspath os path join PARENT ROOT  os pardir   print  example 3    GRANDPAPA ROOT  print  ------------------------------------------------------------

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os path split os path abspath mydir   0

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If you want only the name of the folder that is the immediate parent of the file provided as an argument and not the absolute path to that file   os path split os path dirname currentDir   1   i e  with a currentDir value of  home user path to myfile file ext  The above command will return   myfile

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import os  def parent filedir n       return parent filedir iter n  os path dirname   file      def parent filedir iter n  path       n   int n      if n  lt   1          return path     return parent filedir iter n - 1  os path dirname path    test dir   os path abspath parent filedir 2

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Just adding something to the Tung s answer  you need to use rstrip      to be more of the safer side if you re on a unix box     gt  gt  gt  input       data replies    gt  gt  gt  os path dirname input rstrip           data   gt  gt  gt  input       data replies   gt  gt  gt  os path dirname input rstrip           data    But  if you don t use rstrip       given your input is    gt  gt  gt  input       data replies     would output    gt  gt  gt  os path dirname input      data replies    which is probably not what you re looking at as you want both     data replies   and     data replies  to behave the same way

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import os p   os path abspath         C  Program Files ---  C      C   ---  C

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The answers given above are all perfectly fine for going up one or two directory levels  but they may get a bit cumbersome if one needs to traverse the directory tree by many levels  say  5 or 10   This can be done concisely by joining a list of N os pardirs in os path join  Example   import os   Create list of      times 5 upup    os pardir  5   Extract list as arguments of join   go upup   os path join  upup    Get abspath for current file up dir   os path abspath os path join   file    go upup

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print os path abspath os path join os getcwd    os path pardir     You can use this to get the parent directory of the current location of your py file

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os path abspath os path join somepath           Observe   import posixpath import ntpath  print ntpath abspath ntpath join  C             print ntpath abspath ntpath join  C   foo          print posixpath abspath posixpath join             print posixpath abspath posixpath join   home

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import os  dir path   os path dirname os path realpath   file     parent path   os path abspath os path join dir path  os pardir

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gt  gt  gt  import os  gt  gt  gt  os path basename os path dirname  lt your path gt      For example in Ubuntu      gt  gt  gt  my path     home user documents   gt  gt  gt  os path basename os path dirname my path     Output   user    For example in Windows      gt  gt  gt  my path    C  WINDOWS system32   gt  gt  gt  os path basename os path dirname my path     Output   WINDOWS    Both examples tried in Python 2 7

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Suppose we have directory structure like  1     home User P Q R   We want to access the path of  P  from the directory R then we can access using  ROOT   os path abspath os path join       os pardir      2    home User P Q R   We want to access the path of  Q  directory from the directory R then we can access using  ROOT   os path abspath os path join      os pardir

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GET Parent Directory Path and make New directory  name new dir   Get Parent Directory Path  os path abspath       os pardir   Example 1  import os print os makedirs os path join os path dirname   file     os pardir   new dir      Example 2  import os print os makedirs os path join os path dirname   file     os path abspath         new dir

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Update from Python 3 4  Use the pathlib module   from pathlib import Path path   Path   here your path file txt   print path parent    Old answer  Try this   import os path print os path abspath os path join yourpath  os pardir     where yourpath is the path you want the parent for

[python] How do I get the parent directory in Python?

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