how to get only the lastname of the directory, in python

Question

Hi, guys,

I am using wxpython and python to develop a gui. If I use the wx.dirdialog to get the directory like this:

/folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD/

how can I get string "folderD"?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You could do

import os
os.path.basename('/folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD')

UPDATE1: This approach works in case you give it /folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD/xx.py. This gives xx.py as the basename. Which is not what you want I guess. So you could do this -

import os
path = "/folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD"
if os.path.isdir(path):
    dirname = os.path.basename(path)

UPDATE2: As lars pointed out, making changes so as to accomodate leading '\'.

from os.path import normpath, basename
basename(normpath('/folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD/'))

Answer 2

path = "/folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD/"
last = path.split('/').pop()

Answer 3

str = "/folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD/"
print str.split("/")[-2]

Answer 4

Use os.path.normpath, then os.path.basename:

>>> print os.path.basename(os.path.normpath('/folderA/folderB/folderC/folderD/')
folderD

The first strips off any trailing slashes, the second gives you the last part of the path. Using only basename gives everything after the last slash, which in this case is ''.

Answer 5

A naive solution(Python 2.5.2+):

s="/path/to/any/folder/orfile"
desired_dir_or_file = s[s.rindex('/',0,-1)+1:-1] if s.endswith('/') else s[s.rindex('/')+1:]