[Python-Dev] Obtaining short file path

[Trent Nelson]

If you want a short path name, you should use win32api.GetShortPathName().  Attempting to compute it yourself isn’t as straight forward as you think.

From: python-dev-bounces+tnelson=onresolve.com at python.org [mailto:python-dev-bounces+tnelson=onresolve.com at python.org] On Behalf Of Hartwell Bryan
Sent: 27 May 2008 08:00
To: python-dev at python.org
Subject: [Python-Dev] Obtaining short file path


Hi,

Purpose: obtaining the system (“short”) path from a full path

Background: File dialogs (visual studio) return a full path (e.g. f=“C:\this path has spaces\thisfilenameislongerthan8char.txt”). If this value is provided to Python, it will not recongize this as a file. In fact os.path.isfile(f) doesn’t return false, it crashes. Likewise, when calling executables (from Python) with files as arguments a short path is required. VB FileSystemObject has the ShortPath method, while os.path and path (www.jorendorff.com) modules do not (at least as far as my googling could determine). Why bother creating a COM interface when you’re just going to pass as shell run-time arguments all the values the server is better at computing?

System: Python 2.3; Windows XP

Sample Code:

import win32com.client

import time

import os,sys

import os.path

#-------------------------------------------------------------

def shortpath(x):

  z=''

  for y in x.split('\\'):

    if len(y.split('.')[0])>8:

      if ('.' in y):

        z=z+'\\'+y.split('.')[0][:6].upper()+'~1'+'.'+y.split('.')[1]

      else:

        z=z+'\\'+y[:6].upper()+'~1'

    else:

      z=z+'\\'+y

  return z[1:]

#-------------------------------------------------------------

xlApp = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application")

xlBook = xlApp.ActiveWorkbook

savFile = str(sys.argv[1])

rawFile = str(xlBook.Sheets("Timestamp").TextBox2)

#print os.path.isfile(savFile)

r=shortpath(rawFile)

print r

try:

  print os.path.isfile(r)

except:

  print 'something rude'

time.sleep(7)

Notes: This code does not account for peer paths or files that share the first 8 characters (and file extension). I’m also aware that this is not the normal means for submitting a “patch”, but in my job function I don’t see myself regularly participating in python development (and I’m probably not savvy enough) so the effort wasn’t worth it. However I still thought others might benefit from what seems to be (to me) a fundamental path function. Do with it, or ignore it, as you please.

Cheers,

Bryan Hartwell

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