Relative path in python on win 10

Question

All I want in python 3 is to use a relative path on a win 10 PC. like:

open('folder_for_text\text_subfolder\myText.txt')

I've tried:

open('folder_for_text/text_subfolder/myText.txt') # this should also work in python
open('folder_for_text\\text_subfolder\myText.txt')
open(r'folder_for_text\text_subfolder\myText.txt')

and every frickin' library on this planet

Somebody help me, please!

• olenscki: What error is your code raising for each of this options? Where in this relative path is your code running?
• Dorian: if you are using relative paths, make sure it is the relative path from where you are running the script and not where the script is located.
• Mark Ransom: All of your backslashes must be doubled up, not just the first one.
• wjandrea: Welcome to SO! Check out the tour. Debugging questions require a minimal reproducible example, but you haven't even said what the problem is. If there's an error, please provide it in full. You can edit the post. See How to Ask for more advice.

Answer 1

If you are running the script from a different folder, the relative path must be from the place where you are running the script:

e.g. if the script is in Documents and you are running it from your home folder like

python Documents/script.py

the relative path needs to be from the home folder, not from the script location.

Also make use of the os.path package. this alows you to build operating system agnostic code with paths:

rel_path = os.path.join('..', 'dir1', 'dir2', 'file.txt')

• Mark Ransom: Note that os.getcwd() will show you the current base directory no matter where or how you started the script.