Python: get path to file in sister directory?

Question

I have a file structure like this:

data
   mydata.xls
scripts
   myscript.py

From within myscript.py, how can I get the filepath of mydata.

Answer 1

If you want to made it independent from your current directory try

os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '../data/mydata.xls')

The special variable __file__ contains a relative path to the script in which it's used. Keep in mind that __file__ is undefined when using the REPL interpreter.