Working with filesystems is a type of duties that appear trivial at first look, but can simply catch even skilled builders off guard. I’ll be the primary to confess — I’ve made my justifiable share of errors. Probably the most frequent anti-patterns I’ve encountered is representing file paths as strings in Python.
It’s time to rethink this strategy.
In at present’s article, we’ll discover why utilizing strings (and even the os module) for file paths is a recipe for catastrophe. We’ll dive into greatest practices and see how the pathlib bundle may help you write cleaner, extra maintainable code.
Why Utilizing Strings for Paths is a Dangerous Concept
In the event you’ve ever labored on a venture that should run on totally different working methods, you realize the ache of coping with paths. Completely different methods have other ways of representing paths. Unix-based methods (like Linux and macOS) use a ahead slash /, whereas Home windows makes use of a backslash . It’s a small element, however one that may result in huge complications for those who’re not cautious.
# Unix (e.g. Linux, OSX, and many others.)
/house/this/is/a/path/to/a/listing# Home windows
C:homethisisapathtoadirectory