Working with operating system paths in Python - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Working with operating system paths

📖 Scenario: Imagine you are organizing files on your computer. You want to work with file paths to check where files are stored and create new paths easily.

🎯 Goal: You will create a program that uses Python's os.path module to join folder names and filenames into full paths, and then display the full paths.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the os.path module

Create variables for folder names and filenames

Join folder names and filenames into full paths

Print the full paths

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Working with file paths is important when you organize files, read or save data, and manage folders on your computer.

💼 Career

Many programming jobs require handling file paths to work with files, such as in data analysis, web development, and automation.

1

Create folder and file name variables

Create a variable called folder and set it to the string 'Documents'. Then create a variable called filename and set it to the string 'notes.txt'.

Python

# Create variables folder and filename with exact values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use simple assignment like folder = 'Documents'.

2

Import os.path and create a full path variable

Import the os.path module. Then create a variable called full_path that joins folder and filename using os.path.join().

Python

folder = 'Documents'
filename = 'notes.txt'
# Import os.path and join folder and filename into full_path
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use import os.path and then os.path.join(folder, filename).

3

Create another file path with a subfolder

Create a variable called subfolder and set it to the string 'Work'. Then create a variable called work_file that joins folder, subfolder, and filename using os.path.join().

Python

import os.path

folder = 'Documents'
filename = 'notes.txt'
full_path = os.path.join(folder, filename)
# Create subfolder variable and join folder, subfolder, filename into work_file
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use subfolder = 'Work' and join three parts with os.path.join().

4

Print the full paths

Print the variables full_path and work_file each on its own line using two print() statements.

Python

import os.path

folder = 'Documents'
filename = 'notes.txt'
full_path = os.path.join(folder, filename)

subfolder = 'Work'
work_file = os.path.join(folder, subfolder, filename)
# Print full_path and work_file
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(full_path) and print(work_file) to show the paths.