Quick Check: Python Paths and pathlib

Review

1. What does creating Path('reports') do?

   Creating a Path object represents a path; it does not create the filesystem entry.
2. How should you combine path components with pathlib?

   The / operator is the pathlib path-composition operation.
3. What does path.suffix return for reports/summary.csv?

   suffix is the final file extension, including its leading dot.
4. What does with_suffix() do?

   with_suffix() derives a new path object; it does not itself modify the filesystem.
5. Which operation actually queries the filesystem?

   is_file() checks the filesystem to determine whether the path points to a file.
6. Which pathlib method yields only entries directly inside a directory?

   iterdir() reports immediate children and does not descend into subdirectories.
7. Which expression finds .csv files in root and in its nested directories?

   rglob() searches recursively; glob("*.csv") matches direct children only.
8. Which statement about recursive pathlib globbing is correct?

   Sort results when order matters; recursive scanning costs and symlink behavior should be explicit.
9. Why should new code use os.path.commonpath() rather than os.path.commonprefix() to find a shared directory?

   commonprefix() works character by character, not by path components. Python 3.15 deprecates it in favor of commonpath() for path prefixes.
10. Which statement about expanding a home-directory shortcut is correct?

    Home expansion is an explicit transformation. It creates neither the directory nor a guarantee that it exists.
11. Which description best distinguishes Path.absolute() from Path.resolve()?

    Path.absolute() does not normalize .. or resolve symbolic links; Path.resolve() does, and with strict=False can retain a missing tail.
12. A target is outside base. Which operation can still compute a relative route containing .. components?

    os.path.relpath() computes a route between pathnames without checking that the target is below the start. relative_to() raises ValueError when the base is not a lexical prefix.
13. Two path names have different spellings, but both point to the same existing file. Which operation checks filesystem identity?

    samefile() asks the filesystem whether both existing paths refer to the same object. Equal spelling or equal contents do not prove identity.
14. What does os.path.normpath() do, and what does it not guarantee?

    normpath() operates on pathname syntax. It may change meaning around symbolic links and is not a security boundary.
15. What happens when os.path.basename() receives a bytes path?

    os.path APIs can work with str or bytes paths and preserve that type for returned path/name values. Use os.fsencode() and os.fsdecode() for filesystem-aware conversion.
16. What does os.path.expandvars() do when a referenced environment variable is not set?

    expandvars() replaces recognized variables that exist in the current environment. Missing or malformed references remain unchanged; the function neither invokes a shell nor creates filesystem entries.
17. What does os.path.splitroot(path) return, and what does that tell you about the input path?

    splitroot() separates drive, root separators, and the remaining tail. Their concatenation recreates the input string; the function parses path syntax rather than checking the filesystem.