How to open my files in data_folder with pandas using relative path?

Question

I'm working with pandas and need to read some csv files, the structure is something like this:

folder/folder2/scripts_folder/script.py

folder/folder2/data_folder/data.csv

How can I open the data.csv file from the script in scripts_folder?

I've tried this:

absolute_path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname('data.csv'))

pandas.read_csv(absolute_path + '/data.csv')

I get this error:

File folder/folder2/data_folder/data.csv does not exist

Answer 1

Try

import pandas as pd
pd.read_csv("../data_folder/data.csv")

Answer 2

Pandas will start looking from where your current python file is located. Therefore you can move from your current directory to where your data is located with '..' For example:

pd.read_csv('../../../data_folder/data.csv')

Will go 3 levels up and then into a data_folder (assuming it's there) Or

pd.read_csv('data_folder/data.csv')

assuming your data_folder is in the same directory as your .py file.

Answer 3

You could use the __file__ attribute:

import os
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "../data_folder/data.csv"))

Answer 4

For non-Windows users:

import pandas as pd
import os

os.chdir("../data_folder")
df = pd.read_csv("data.csv")

For Windows users:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_csv(r"C:\data_folder\data.csv")

The prefix r in location above saves time when giving the location to the pandas Dataframe.

Answer 5

# script.py
current_file = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)) #older/folder2/scripts_folder

#csv_filename
csv_filename = os.path.join(current_file, '../data_folder/data.csv')

Answer 6

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('C:/data_folder/data.csv')