Remove the part of string after the last occurrence in python

Question

I have a string that has the path of the file stored in it.

path = \home\linux\testfile\abc\work

now I want to write a function with which I can remove all the characters occurring after the last '\\'. So,

new_path = \home\linux\testfile\abc

Is there a way I can do it? Slicing doesn't help because the number of characters after the last '\' isn't fixed. I know i need to post an attempt but i don't even understand how do i start this.

Why does slicing not work? Slice it and get the last element by using sliced_path[-1] on the resulting list. Or use rsplit — IcesHay, Jul 13 '22 at 09:48

I'mahdi · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-13T10:01:52.170

2

You can use rsplit to start from the right and only split one time.

>>> path = '\home\linux\testfile\abc\work'
>>> path.rsplit('\\', 1)
['\\home\\linux\\testfile\\abc', 'work']

>>> path.rsplit('\\', 1)[0]
'\\home\\linux\\testfile\\abc'

edited Jul 13 '22 at 10:01

answered Jul 13 '22 at 09:49

I'mahdi

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This works for me i used to think that split removes after the first occurrence. – Pushpesh Jul 13 '22 at 09:59
@Pushpesh, welcome, `split` strat from `left` BUT `rsplit` start from `right` and you can also control how many split – I'mahdi Jul 13 '22 at 10:01

null · Answer 2 · 2022-07-14T08:02:29.537

2

Why not simply use pathlib? Path objects never leave trailing path delimiters.

from pathlib import Path

path = Path("\home\linux\testfile\abc\work") 
new_path = path.parent

edited Jul 14 '22 at 08:02

answered Jul 13 '22 at 13:55

null

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Harsha Biyani · Answer 3 · 2022-07-18T06:01:10.400

1

You can try with os library.

>>> import os
>>> data = os.path.split(r"\home\linux\testfile\abc\work")
>>> data[1]
'work'
>>> data[0]
'\\home\\linux\\testfile\\abc'

edited Jul 18 '22 at 06:01

answered Jul 13 '22 at 09:48

Harsha Biyani

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 13 '22 at 09:55

1

Does it mean that I get the parent directory

>>> a="/home/pro"
>>> os.path.dirname(a)
'/home'

answered Jul 13 '22 at 09:55

Vox

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 13 '22 at 13:43

1

path = "\\home\\linux\\testfile\\abc\\work"
pat = path.split("\\")

pat.pop()

path = "\\".join(pat)


print(path)

output

answered Jul 13 '22 at 13:43

Bhautik Bhalala

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How is this a significant improvement over the accepted answer? – Z4-tier Jul 13 '22 at 21:08

bogdaN · Answer 6 · 2022-07-13T09:55:42.770

-1

You can use head, tail = os.path.split(path)

Check here

edited Jul 13 '22 at 09:55

answered Jul 13 '22 at 09:51

bogdaN

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This only works if the last part of the directory is called "work"... – IcesHay Jul 13 '22 at 09:52
Yes, i know, i was giving an example, then a reference to what i used, and he can work with it. He can just os.path.split(path) then work with (head,tail) output. – bogdaN Jul 13 '22 at 09:53
Yes, but OP asked for a function that works generally, not an example... – IcesHay Jul 13 '22 at 09:55
This approach won't work for me because the last part isn't fixed. – Pushpesh Jul 13 '22 at 09:58
I have edited my answer. you can just take any path into a variable and pass it to split() – bogdaN Jul 13 '22 at 10:29

Remove the part of string after the last occurrence in python

6 Answers6