🗂️ Working with File Paths — Cross-Platform File Access

Learn to work with file paths safely across Windows, Mac, and Linux.

🎯 Understanding File Paths

File paths show the location of files in your system.

# Absolute path (full location from root)
"/Users/alice/Documents/data.txt"  # macOS/Linux
"C:\\Users\\alice\\Documents\\data.txt"  # Windows

# Relative path (from current directory)
"data.txt"  # File in current directory
"reports/monthly.txt"  # In subdirectory

💡 Using pathlib for Portable Code

`pathlib` handles path differences across operating systems automatically.

from pathlib import Path

# Create path object
file_path = Path("data.txt")

# Works on all operating systems
file_path = Path("reports") / "2024" / "sales.txt"

# Check if file exists
if file_path.exists():
    print("File found!")

# Read file
content = file_path.read_text()

# Write file
file_path.write_text("New data")

🎨 Real-World Example: Cross-Platform Project

from pathlib import Path

# Project structure (works on all OS)
project_dir = Path(__file__).parent
data_dir = project_dir / "data"
output_dir = project_dir / "output"

# Create directories if needed
data_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
output_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

# Read from data directory
input_file = data_dir / "input.csv"
if input_file.exists():
    content = input_file.read_text()

# Write to output directory
output_file = output_dir / "results.txt"
output_file.write_text("Analysis complete")

📊 Path Operations

🔑 Key Takeaways

• ✅ Use `pathlib.Path` for portable paths

• ✅ Works on Windows, Mac, and Linux

• ✅ Use `/` operator to join paths

• ✅ Check `exists()` before reading

• ✅ Create directories with `mkdir()`

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