format_display_path

pyhelpers.dirs.format_display_path(path, normalized=True, surrounded_by='"', is_dir=None, prepend_dot=False)[source]

Format a path string for display, logging or printing purposes.

This function generates a visual representation of a path. It can optionally add trailing slashes for directories, wrap the output in quotes and prepend a dot-slash for relative paths (e.g. when preparing shell commands).

Parameters:

  • path (str | bytes | pathlib.Path | os.PathLike) – The filesystem path to format for display.

  • normalized (bool) – Whether to standardize slashes via _normalize_path(). Defaults to True.

  • surrounded_by (str) – A string literal used to wrap the output. Defaults to '"'.

  • is_dir (bool | None) – Explicitly treat the path as a directory. If None, the filesystem is checked first; when the path does not exist, this falls back to a heuristic that treats a path without a file extension as a directory (which can misclassify extensionless files such as "Makefile" or "LICENSE"). Defaults to None.

  • prepend_dot (bool) – If True, prepends a ./ (or native OS equivalent) to paths that are not absolute. Defaults to False.

Returns:

Formatted pathname with configured slashes and wrappers.

Return type:

str

Examples:

>>> from pyhelpers.dirs import format_display_path

>>> format_display_path("pyhelpers\data")
'"pyhelpers/data/"'

>>> format_display_path("pyhelpers\data", normalized=False)  # on Windows
'"pyhelpers\data\"'

>>> format_display_path("pyhelpers\data\pyhelpers.dat", prepend_dot=True)
'"./pyhelpers/data/pyhelpers.dat"'

>>> format_display_path("C:\Windows", prepend_dot=True)  # on Windows
'"C:/Windows/"'