Comparing two paths in python

Question

Consider:

path1 = "c:/fold1/fold2"
list_of_paths = ["c:\fold1\fold2","c:\temp\temp123"]

if path1 in list_of_paths:
    print "found"

I would like the if statement to return True, but it evaluates to False,
since it is a string comparison.

How to compare two paths irrespective of the forward or backward slashes they have? I’d prefer not to use the replace function to convert both strings to a common format.

Asked By: Jagannath Ks

||

Source

Answer 1

Store the list_of_paths as a list instead of a string:

list_of_paths = [["c:","fold1","fold2"],["c","temp","temp123"]]

Then split given path by ‘/’ or ” (whichever is present) and then use the in keyword.

Answered By: Aswin Murugesh

Answer 2

Use os.path.normpath to convert c:/fold1/fold2 to c:fold1fold2:

>>> path1 = "c:/fold1/fold2"
>>> list_of_paths = ["c:\fold1\fold2","c:\temp\temp123"]
>>> os.path.normpath(path1)
'c:\fold1\fold2'
>>> os.path.normpath(path1) in list_of_paths
True
>>> os.path.normpath(path1) in (os.path.normpath(p) for p in list_of_paths)
True

os.path.normpath(path1) in map(os.path.normpath, list_of_paths) also works, but it will build a list with entire path items even though there’s match in the middle. (In Python 2.x)

On Windows, you must use os.path.normcase to compare paths because on Windows, paths are not case-sensitive.

Answered By: falsetru

Answer 3

Use os.path.normpath to canonicalize the paths before comparing them. For example:

if any(os.path.normpath(path1) == os.path.normpath(p)
       for p in list_of_paths):
    print "found"

Answered By: user4815162342

Answer 4

The os.path module contains several functions to normalize file paths so that equivalent paths normalize to the same string. You may want normpath, normcase, abspath, samefile, or some other tool.

Answered By: user2357112

Answer 5

All of these answers mention os.path.normpath, but none of them mention os.path.realpath:

os.path.realpath(path)

Return the canonical path of the specified filename, eliminating any symbolic links encountered in the path (if they are supported by the operating system).

New in version 2.2.

So then:

if os.path.realpath(path1) in (os.path.realpath(p) for p in list_of_paths):
    # ...

Answered By: Jonathon Reinhart

Answer 6

If you are using python-3, you can use pathlib to achieve your goal:

import pathlib
path1 = pathlib.Path("c:/fold1/fold2")
list_of_paths = [pathlib.Path(path) for path in ["c:\fold1\fold2","c:\temp\temp123"]]
assert path1 in list_of_paths

Answered By: pkowalczyk

Comparing two paths in python

Question:

Answers: