Inverting path in string with escaped spaces

Question

I need to pass a subtitle path to VLC, it only takes native paths (backslashes on Windows, forward slashes on Unix) and needs space escaping.

Let's say I have a Qt native path with a space in it.

C:/Users/Thinkpad/Downloads/test file.srt

How do I convert it into this:

C:\\Users\\Thinkpad\\Downloads\\test\ file.srt

I need to pass a string to VLC's `--sub-path=FILE` parameter. It must be a native path (`"\"` on WIndows) and spaces must be escaped. — Gala, Feb 24 '17 at 23:00
@Gala: but if you put the path between quotes, it does not have to be escaped. You can use `'C:\the file.mp3'` (with single quotes). — Willem Van Onsem, Feb 24 '17 at 23:01
Possible duplicate of [Windows path in python](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2953834/windows-path-in-python) — lmiguelvargasf, Feb 24 '17 at 23:11
@Gala. But how *exactly* are you invoking this command? Show some actual code that reproduces the problem. — ekhumoro, Feb 24 '17 at 23:12

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 24 '17 at 23:07

To handle this problem I strongly suggest using

os.path.normpath('C:/Users/Thinkpad/Downloads/test file.srt')

If you enter all of your filename strings using forward slashes, and then let os.path.normpath(path) change them to backslashes for you, this way.

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 24 '17 at 23:08

3

Not sure if there is anything in the standard library to handle this, but if it is just slashes and spaces you need a simple string replace will be faster and simpler. i.e.

path = path.replace('/','\\').replace(' ','\ ')

edited Feb 24 '17 at 23:08

lmiguelvargasf

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answered Feb 24 '17 at 23:03

Edd Saunders

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Inverting path in string with escaped spaces

2 Answers2