which one should I use: os.sep or os.path.sep?

user_211096 0
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They are same, but which one should I use?

http://docs.python.org/library/os.html:

os.sep

The character used by the operating system to separate pathname components. This is '/' for POSIX and '\' for Windows. Note that knowing this is not sufficient to be able to parse or concatenate pathnames — use os.path.split() and os.path.join() — but it is occasionally useful. Also available via os.path.

operating-system python
5 Answers

The following examples could highlight the differences between os.path.join and os.path.sep.join.

>>> import os
>>> os.path.join("output", "images", "saved")
'output/images/saved'
>>> os.path.sep.join(["output", "images", "saved"])
'output/images/saved'

I guess the os.path.sep.join is more robust and can be used w/o modifications for any os.

user_78302860
  1. As mentioned in the python docs, both os.path.sep and os.sep return the same output.

The character used by the operating system to separate pathname components. This is '/' for POSIX and '\' for Windows.

  1. Both of them belongs to the same python class also.

    print(type(os.sep))
print(type(os.path.sep))

# Output
<class 'str'>
<class 'str'>

  2. Both have them have the same documentation.

    print(os.path.sep.__doc__)
print(os.sep.__doc__)

# The outputs of both print statements are the same.

So, I think after Python2 where we mostly used os.sep, in Python3 only the consistency matters as far as their uses are concerned.

user_144762860
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