CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7directorychdir
Josh Wood
Josh Wood

Reputation: 1696

Python os.chdir is modifying the passed directory name

I am trying to change the current working directory in python using os.chdir. I have the following code:

import os

os.chdir("C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\20130216")

However, when I run it, it seems to change the directory, as it comes out with the following error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\LapseBot 1.0\LapseBot.py", line 3, in <module>
os.chdir("C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\20130216")
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified
  'C:\\Users\\Josh\\Desktop\x8130216'

Can anyone help me?

Upvotes: 11

Views: 43657

Answers (5)

Anas Khan
Anas Khan

Reputation: 1

There are two to use os.chdir():

  1. If you are using raw string than use single backslash \:

    os.chdir(r"C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\20130216")

or

  1. If you are not using raw string than use double backslash \\

    os.chdir("C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\20130216")

Upvotes: 0

Ashish Patel
Ashish Patel

Reputation: 9

I have faced the same problem but you have to try:

os.chdir(c:\\user\\Josh\\Desktop)

Use \\ so maybe you should get your solution.

Upvotes: -1

vaultah
vaultah

Reputation: 46593

You could also use os.path.join (documentation). Example:

os.chdir(os.path.join('C:\Users\Josh\Desktop', '20130216'))

This is more elegant + it's compatible with different operating systems.

Upvotes: 4

voithos
voithos

Reputation: 70632

Python is interpreting the \2013 part of the path as the escape sequence \201, which maps to the character \x81, which is ü (and of course, C:\Users\Josh\Desktopü30216 doesn't exist).

Use a raw string, to make sure that Python doesn't try to interpret anything following a \ as an escape sequence.

os.chdir(r"C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\20130216")

Upvotes: 28

masnun
masnun

Reputation: 11916

This should work -

os.chdir("C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\\20130216")

Upvotes: 3

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