Pathlib - switching path from Windows to Mac

Coding
1

Hello all,

I’m trying to make a script more generic so it can be run on a Mac while created on a windows (I know I could just change the path manually but I would like a better option).
To do so I’m using the pathlib command but running into issues.

Here is what I have done so far in the coder. in italics are the output from each line:

home = str(Path.home())

***  '/Users/myname' ***

conditionmixer_folder = PureWindowsPath(“\Box\Folder\SubStudy3\conditionmixer\”)

***  PureWindowsPath('/Box/Folder/SubStudy3/conditionmixer') ***

path_on_mac = Path(conditionmixer_folder)

PosixPath(‘\/Box/Folder/SubStudy3_Neurofeedback/Hannah/conditionmixer’)

and then I try generating a path to make it work on the Mac (that includes other options):
listvariable.append({“condfile”:home + str(path_on_mac) + hehe.get(“condfile”)})
it does not work because cannot find the file:

ValueError: Conditions file not found: /Users/beynellc/Box/Folder/SubStudy3_Neurofeedback/conditionmixercond3animal.xlsx

I noticed that there is a backward and forward slashes joining home and the path.
when I looked at the output of str(path_on_mac) I’m getting

***'\\/Box/Folder/SubStudy3_Neurofeedback/conditionmixer'***

and there is still \/ do you know how I can get rid of that?

Thank you !

2

I run into this all the time, as much as I love Pathlib it’s very annoying. I think this is because PosixPath interprets a path beginning with “/” as being relative to the root folder (“\”) while WindowsPath interprets it as being a relative path. Does it fix the problem if you add a “.” to the beginning of your path when defining the original object?

3

Thank you for your answer. At least I’m glad I’m not the only one having this issue

Adding the “.” helps a bit cause it switches from:
PosixPath(‘**\/**Box/Folder/SubStudy3_Neurofeedback/Hannah/conditionmixer’)

to:
PosixPath(‘Box/Folder/SubStudy3_Neurofeedback/Hannah/conditionmixer’)

However when I use the home + str(path_on_mac) to append it, it fully remove the slash

‘/Users/mynameBox/Folder/SubStudy3/conditionmixer’

Any other options ?

4

Oh I figured it out,

I added a + “/” after calling home and that fixed it!

Thank you !!

1 Like
5

I think you can also do

home / path_on_mac

and Pathlib should handle this