Python | os.path.commonpath() method Last Updated : 22 May, 2019 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report OS module in Python provides functions for interacting with the operating system. OS comes under Python’s standard utility modules. This module provides a portable way of using operating system dependent functionality. os.path module is submodule of OS module in Python used for common path name manipulation. os.path.commonpath() method in Python is used to get the longest common sub-path in a list of paths. This method raise ValueError if the specified list of paths either contains both absolute and relative path, or is empty. Unlike os.path.commonpath() method, the returned value is a valid path. For example consider the following list of paths: list of paths Longest common sub-path ['/home/User/Photos', /home/User/Videos'] /home/User ['/usr/local/bin', '/usr/lib'] /usr Syntax: os.path.commonpath(list) Parameter: path: A list of path-like object. A path-like object is either a string or bytes object representing a path. Return Type: This method returns a string value which represents the longest common sub-path in the specified list. Code #1: Use of os.path.commonpath() method Python3 # Python program to explain os.path.commonpath() method # importing os module import os # List of Paths paths = ['/home/User/Desktop', '/home/User/Documents', '/home/User/Downloads'] # Get the # longest common sub-path # in the specified list prefix = os.path.commonpath(paths) # Print the # longest common sub-path # in the specified list print("Longest common sub-path:", prefix) # List of Paths paths = ['/usr/local/bin', '/usr/bin'] # Get the # longest common sub-path # in the specified list prefix = os.path.commonpath(paths) # Print the # longest common sub-path # in the specified list print("Longest common sub-path:", prefix) Output: Longest common sub-path: /home/User Longest common sub-path: /usr Code #2: Use of os.path.commonpath() method Python3 # Python program to explain os.path.commonpath() method # importing os module import os # List of Paths paths = ['/usr/local/bin', 'usr/bin'] # Get the # longest common sub-path # in the specified list prefix = os.path.commonpath(paths) # Print the # longest common sub-path # in the specified list print("Longest common sub-path:", prefix) # The above code will raise # ValueError as list of paths # contains both absolute and # relative path Output: Traceback (most recent call last): File "oscommonpath.py", line 12, in prefix = os.path.commonpath(paths) File "/usr/lib/python3.6/posixpath.py", line 505, in commonpath raise ValueError("Can't mix absolute and relative paths") from None ValueError: Can't mix absolute and relative paths Note: If the specified list is empty, os.path.commonpath() method will raise ValueError too. Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.path.html Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article Python | os.path.commonprefix() method I ihritik Follow Improve Article Tags : Python python-os-module Practice Tags : python Similar Reads OS Path module in Python OS Path module contains some useful functions on pathnames. The path parameters are either strings or bytes. These functions here are used for different purposes such as for merging, normalizing, and retrieving path names in Python. All of these functions accept either only bytes or only string obje 2 min read os.path.abspath() method - Python The os.path.abspath() method in Python's os module is used to get the full (absolute) path of a file or folder. It's useful when you're working with relative paths but need to know the exact location on your system. 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