The os.path.commonprefix() method in Python is used to find the longest common prefix string amongst a list of strings.
Syntax
os.path.commonprefix(path_list)
Parameters
Name | Description |
list (list of strings) | A list of pathnames. |
Return Value
It returns a string representing the longest common prefix (taken character by character) that is a prefix of all paths in the list.
Example 1: Finding common prefixes of paths
import os
paths = ['/home/user/docs/data.txt',
'/home/user/docs/file.txt',
'/home/user/document']
common_prefix = os.path.commonprefix(paths)
print("Common prefix:", common_prefix)
Output
Common prefix: /home/user/doc
Example 2: Finding a common prefix within a list of strings
import os
strings = ['abcdef', 'abcxyz', 'abc123']
common_prefix = os.path.commonprefix(strings)
print("Common prefix:", common_prefix)
Output
Common prefix: abc
While os.path.commonprefix() can help find the longest common substring in a list of strings, caution is needed for path manipulations.
For finding the common path of a list of file paths, os.path.commonpath() is usually more appropriate, as it understands the filesystem path semantics.