Python `pathlib` Cheatsheet

1. Importing

from pathlib import Path

2. Creating Paths

            
                # Current working directory
                p = Path.cwd()
    
                # Home directory
                home = Path.home()
    
                # Relative path
                p = Path("folder/subfolder/file.txt")
    
                # Absolute path
                p = Path("/usr/local/bin")
    
                # Convert to string
                str_path = str(p)

3. Path Components

            
                p = Path("/home/max/docs/report.pdf")
                p.name       # "report.pdf"
                p.stem       # "report"
                p.suffix     # ".pdf"
                p.suffixes   # [".tar", ".gz"]
                p.parent     # "/home/max/docs"
                p.parents[0] # "/home/max/docs"
                p.parents[1] # "/home/max"

4. Path Operations

            
                # Joining paths
                p = Path("/home/max") / "docs" / "report.pdf"
    
                # Replace filename or extension
                p.with_name("new_file.txt")
                p.with_suffix(".md")

5. File / Directory Checks

            
                p.exists()     # True/False
                p.is_file()    # True if file
                p.is_dir()     # True if directory
                p.is_symlink() # True if symlink

6. File System Operations

            
                # Read / write text
                p.write_text("Hello World")
                content = p.read_text()

                # Read / write bytes
                p.write_bytes(b"binary data")
                data = p.read_bytes()

                # Make directories
                Path("new/folder").mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

                # Remove file
                p.unlink()

                # Rename / move
                p.rename("new_name.txt")
                p.replace("some/other/location.txt")

7. Glob Patterns

            
                # Match all .txt files
                for file in Path("docs").glob("*.txt"):
                    print(file)

                # Recursive glob
                for file in Path("docs").rglob("*.txt"):
                    print(file)

8. Resolve & Absolute Paths

            
                p = Path("docs/../report.pdf")
            p.resolve()  # Absolute normalized path

# This tag will be opened by default.

9. (Important!!).... ** Path.iterdir() **

            
                # Basic Iteration & Print Results
                p = Path("docs")
                for item in p.iterdir():
                    print(item)
                    
                # Filter files only
                for f in Path(".").iterdir():
                if f.is_file():
                print(f)
                
                # Filter directories only
                for d in Path(".").iterdir():
                if d.is_dir():
                print(d)
                
                # Sorted
                for entry in sorted(Path(".").iterdir()):
                print(entry.name)
                
                # Filter by extension
                for f in Path(".").iterdir():
                if f.suffix == ".txt":
                print(f)

                # List comprehension
                files = [f.name for f in Path(".").iterdir() if f.is_file()]

10. Quick Comparison

Method	Scope	Example
`iterdir()`	Direct children only	`Path(".").iterdir()`
`glob("*.py")`	Pattern-matching, 1 level deep	`Path(".").glob("*.py")`
`rglob("*.py")`	Recursive search	`Path(".").rglob("*.py")`

# This tag will be opened by default.

Pathlib Methods - Arguments Explained

Method	Arguments	Default	Explanation
`mkdir()`	mode, parents, exist_ok	0o777, False, False	Create a directory. parents=True creates parent directories. exist_ok=True ignores if directory exists.
`rmdir()`	-	-	Remove empty directory. Raises OSError if not empty.
`unlink()`	missing_ok	False	Delete a file. missing_ok=True ignores if file missing.
`rename()`	target	-	Rename or move file. Overwrites not allowed if exists.
`replace()`	target	-	Rename or move file. Overwrites if target exists.
`touch()`	mode, exist_ok	0o666, True	Create empty file. exist_ok=True ignores if file exists.
`open()`	mode, encoding	"r", None	Open file handle like `open()`.
`read_text()`	encoding, errors	None, None	Read file as string.
`write_text()`	data, encoding, errors	-	Write string to file.
`glob()`	pattern	-	Pattern match files in directory.
`rglob()`	pattern	-	Recursive pattern match files.
`iterdir()`	-	-	Iterate over directory entries (direct children only).

Python pathlib Cheatsheet

Python `pathlib` Cheatsheet