Skip to content

The Node path module

The path module of Node.js provides useful functions to interact with file paths

The path module provides a lot of very useful functionality to access and interact with the file system.

There is no need to install it. Being part of the Node core, it can be used by requiring it:

const path = require('path')

This module provides path.sep which provides the path segment separator (\ on Windows, and / on Linux / macOS), and path.delimiter which provides the path delimiter (; on Windows, and : on Linux / macOS).

These are the path methods:

<!-- TOC -->

<!-- /TOC -->

path.basename()

Return the last portion of a path. A second parameter can filter out the file extension:

require('path').basename('/test/something') //something
require('path').basename('/test/something.txt') //something.txt
require('path').basename('/test/something.txt', '.txt') //something

path.dirname()

Return the directory part of a path:

require('path').dirname('/test/something') // /test
require('path').dirname('/test/something/file.txt') // /test/something

path.extname()

Return the extension part of a path

require('path').extname('/test/something') // ''
require('path').extname('/test/something/file.txt') // '.txt'

path.isAbsolute()

Returns true if it's an absolute path

require('path').isAbsolute('/test/something') // true
require('path').isAbsolute('./test/something') // false

path.join()

Joins two or more parts of a path:

const name = 'flavio'
require('path').join('/', 'users', name, 'notes.txt') //'/users/flavio/notes.txt'

path.normalize()

Tries to calculate the actual path when it contains relative specifiers like . or .., or double slashes:

require('path').normalize('/users/flavio/..//test.txt') ///users/test.txt

path.parse()

Parses a path to an object with the segments that compose it:

  • root: the root
  • dir: the folder path starting from the root
  • base: the file name + extension
  • name: the file name
  • ext: the file extension

Example:

require('path').parse('/users/test.txt')

results in

{
  root: '/',
  dir: '/users',
  base: 'test.txt',
  ext: '.txt',
  name: 'test'
}

path.relative()

Accepts 2 paths as arguments. Returns the relative path from the first path to the second, based on the current working directory.

Example:

require('path').relative('/Users/flavio', '/Users/flavio/test.txt') //'test.txt'
require('path').relative('/Users/flavio', '/Users/flavio/something/test.txt') //'something/test.txt'

path.resolve()

You can get the absolute path calculation of a relative path using `path.resolve():

path.resolve('flavio.txt') //'/Users/flavio/flavio.txt' if run from my home folder

By specifying a second parameter, resolve will use the first as a base for the second:

path.resolve('tmp', 'flavio.txt')//'/Users/flavio/tmp/flavio.txt' if run from my home folder

If the first parameter starts with a slash, that means it's an absolute path:

path.resolve('/etc', 'flavio.txt')//'/etc/flavio.txt'
→ Download my free Node.js Handbook!

THE VALLEY OF CODE

THE WEB DEVELOPER's MANUAL

You might be interested in those things I do:

  • Learn to code in THE VALLEY OF CODE, your your web development manual
  • Find a ton of Web Development projects to learn modern tech stacks in practice in THE VALLEY OF CODE PRO
  • I wrote 16 books for beginner software developers, DOWNLOAD THEM NOW
  • Every year I organize a hands-on cohort course coding BOOTCAMP to teach you how to build a complex, modern Web Application in practice (next edition February-March-April-May 2024)
  • Learn how to start a solopreneur business on the Internet with SOLO LAB (next edition in 2024)
  • Find me on X

Related posts that talk about node: