How should I shorten this line of Python code?

Question

Here is the line that needs to be shortened.

tree_top = os.path.abspath(os.path.expanduser(os.path.expandvars(sys.argv[1])))

• Should I create a variable for each procedure?
• Should I alias os.path,abspath, os.path.expandvars and os.path.expanduser to have shorter names?
• Should I use backslashes?

Answer 1

The easiest way to reduce the width is to use implicit line continuation within parentheses:

tree_top = os.path.abspath(
    os.path.expanduser(
        os.path.expandvars(sys.argv[1])
    )
)

Alternatively, just select the parts of os.path that you need:

from os.path import abspath, expanduser, expandvars

tree_top = abspath(expanduser(expandvars(sys.argv[1])))

or use some combination of the two.