CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonargparsefilepath
zeyad khalil
zeyad khalil

Reputation: 19

Parse path as argument in python script and how to type the path in the cmd window

This part of the code always returns None

import argparse
from pathlib import Path


parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-f', "--file_path", type=Path)

p = parser.parse_args()
print(p.file_path)

I need to understand why this is happening. How could I solve it and how to correctly type a path in the cmd window?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 3462

Answers (1)

hc_dev
hc_dev

Reputation: 9377

Works as expected

I saved your given script as SO_argparse_Path.py and run it with python3 and the argument -f Downloads/. See how it prints Downloads as expected folder:

$ python3 SO_argparse_Path.py -f Downloads/

which should print:

Downloads

On Windows you could run the script similarly in CMD.exe, e.g. with C:\:

python SO_argparse_Path.py -f C:\

which should print:

C:\

Paths with spaces inside should be wrapped inside doouble-quotes, see Handle spaces in argparse input

About argument types

From the docs of argparse on parameter type:

The argument to type can be any callable that accepts a single string. If the function raises ArgumentTypeError, TypeError, or ValueError, the exception is caught and a nicely formatted error message is displayed. No other exception types are handled.

(emphasis mine), also see the examples for built-in types there like: parser.add_argument('datapath', type=pathlib.Path)

For a custom argument-handler see: path to a directory as argparse argument

Upvotes: 2

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