Extract file name from path, no matter what the os/path format

Question

Which Python library can I use to extract filenames from paths, no matter what the operating system or path format could be?

For example, I'd like all of these paths to return me c:

a/b/c/ 

a/b/c

\a\b\c 

\a\b\c\ 

a\b\c 

a/b/../../a/b/c/ 

a/b/../../a/b/c

Answer 1

• By importing, the ntpath library (which is equivalent to os.path when running on windows) will work for all paths on all platforms. And by using ntpath.split or ntpath.basename Windows paths can use either backslash or forward slash as path separator. 

• Following is the code that will give your desired output:-

import ntpath

ntpath.basename("a/b/c")

def path_leaf(path):

    head, tail = ntpath.split(path)

    return tail or ntpath.basename(head)

abc= ['a/b/c/', 'a/b/c', '\\a\\b\\c', '\\a\\b\\c\\', 'a\\b\\c','a/b/../../a/b/c/', 'a/b/../../a/b/c']

[path_leaf(path) for path in abc]

Answer 2

Try using this:  

import os

print(os.path.basename(your_path))

For more information, refer to this link:

https://docs.python.org/2/library/os.path.html#os.path.basename