Reputation: 26648

How to move to one folder back in python

Actually need to go some path and execute some command and below is the code

code:

import os
present_working_directory = '/home/Desktop/folder'

presently i am in folder

if some_condition == true :
    change_path = "nodes/hellofolder"
    os.chdir(change_path)
    print os.getcwd()
if another_condition  == true:
    change_another_path = "nodes" 
    os.chdir(change_another_path) 
    print os.getcwd()

**Result**:
'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes/hellofolder'
python: [Errno 1] No such file or directory

Actually whats happening here is when i first used os.chdir() the directory has changed to

'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes/hellofolder',

but for the second one i need to run a file by moving to one folder back that is

'/home/Desktop/folder/nodes'

So can anyone let me how to move one folder back in python

Upvotes: 48

Answers (9)

Mehrdad Kamali

Reputation: 1

import os
pathX = r'C:/Hello/HelloWorld'
print(os.path.dirname(pathX))

Upvotes: 0

simpleParadox

Reputation: 99

The answers mentioned above are correct. The following is more of something that usually happens when your Python script is in a nested directory. You want to go one level up from the current working directory to maybe, let's say, load a file.

The idea is to simply reformat the path string and prefix it with a '../'. So an example would be.

'../current_directory/' + filename

This format is similar to when used in a terminal. Whenever in doubt fire up a terminal and experiment with some commands. The format is reflected in the programming language.

Upvotes: 1

Amirhoseyn

Reputation: 1

Define this function in your script and call it whenever you want to go back just by one folder:

import os

def dirback():
    m = os.getcwd()
    n = m.rfind("\\")
    d = m[0: n+1]
    os.chdir(d)
    return None

Upvotes: 0

Omid Ostovari

Reputation: 372

My problem was fixed with this command first import os and after add os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath(__file__) + os.sep + os.pardir)

Upvotes: 1

Bandham Manikanta

Reputation: 1985

Exact answer for your question is `os.chdir('../')`

Use case:

Folder1:
    sub-folder1:(you want to navigate here)
Folder2:
    sub-folde2:(you are here)

To navigate to sub-folder1 from sub-folder2, you need to write like this "../Folder1/sub-folder1/"

then, put it in os.chdir("../Folder1/sub-folder1/").

Upvotes: 6

chimpsarehungry

Reputation: 1821

Here is a very platform independent way to do it.

In [1]: os.getcwd()
Out[1]: '/Users/user/Dropbox/temp'

In [2]: os.path.normpath(os.getcwd() + os.sep + os.pardir)
Out[2]: '/Users/user/Dropbox/'

Then you have the path, and you can chdir or whatever with it.

Upvotes: 54

Christian Thieme

Reputation: 1124

think about using absolute paths

import os
pwd = '/home/Desktop/folder'

if some_condition == true :
    path = os.path.join(pwd, "nodes/hellofolder")
    os.chdir(path)
    print os.getcwd()
if another_condition  == true:
    path = os.path.join(pwd, "nodes")
    os.chdir(path) 
    print os.getcwd()

Upvotes: 2