How to read a file in other directory in python

Question

I have a file named 5_1.txt in a directory named direct, how can I read that file using read?

I verified the path using :

Answer 1

For windows you can either use the full path with '\\' ('/' for Linux and Mac) as separator of you can use os.getcwd to get the current working directory and give path in reference to the current working directory

data_dir = os.getcwd()+'\\child_directory'
file = open(data_dir+'\\filename.txt', 'r')

When I tried to give the path of child_diectory entirely it resulted in error. For e.g. in this case:

file = open('child_directory\\filename.txt', 'r')

Resulted in error. But I think it must work or I am doing it somewhat wrong way but it doesn't work for me. The about way always works.