How do I get the parent directory in Python?

Question

Could someone tell me how to get the parent directory of a path in Python in a cross platform way. E.g.

C:\Program Files ---> C:\ 

and

C:\ ---> C:\ 

If the directory doesn't have a parent directory, it returns the directory itself. The question might seem simple but I couldn't dig it up through Google.

Answer 1

Python 3.4

Use the pathlib module.

from pathlib import Path path = Path("/here/your/path/file.txt") print(path.parent.absolute()) 

Old answer

Try this:

import os print os.path.abspath(os.path.join(yourpath, os.pardir)) 

where yourpath is the path you want the parent for.