The key here is the `name` attribute of the `f` object representing the opened file. You get it like that:

    &gt;&gt;&gt; f = open(&#39;/Users/Desktop/febROSTER2012.xls&#39;)
    &gt;&gt;&gt; f.name
    &#39;/Users/Desktop/febROSTER2012.xls&#39;

Does it help?

I had the exact same issue. If you are using a relative path os.path.dirname(path) will only return the relative path. **os.path.realpath** does the trick:

    &gt;&gt;&gt; import os
    &gt;&gt;&gt; f = open(&#39;file.txt&#39;)
    &gt;&gt;&gt; os.path.realpath(f.name)



And if you just want to get the directory name and no need for the filename coming with it, then you can do that in the following conventional way using `os` Python module.

    &gt;&gt;&gt; import os
    &gt;&gt;&gt; f = open(&#39;/Users/Desktop/febROSTER2012.xls&#39;)
    &gt;&gt;&gt; os.path.dirname(f.name)
    &gt;&gt;&gt; &#39;/Users/Desktop/&#39;

This way you can get hold of the directory structure.

You can get it like this also.

    filepath = os.path.abspath(f.name)

For example, what does it mean in this quote?
&gt;Integrating with an external API is almost a guarantee in any modern web app. To effectively test such integration, you need to **stub** it out. A good **stub** should be easy to create and consistently up-to-date with actual, current API responses. In this post, we’ll outline a testing strategy using **stubs** for an external API.



What does &quot;to stub&quot; mean in programming?

I&#39;m trying to write a custom filter method that takes an arbitrary number of *kwargs* and returns a list containing the elements of a database-like list that contain those *kwargs*.

For example, suppose `d1 = {&#39;a&#39;:&#39;2&#39;, &#39;b&#39;:&#39;3&#39;}` and `d2` = the same thing. `d1 == d2` results in True. But suppose `d2` = the same thing plus a bunch of other things. My method needs to be able to tell if **d1 in d2**, but Python can&#39;t do that with dictionaries.

Context:

I have a Word class, and each object has properties like `word`, `definition`, `part_of_speech`, and so on. I want to be able to call a filter method on the main list of these words, like `Word.objects.filter(word=&#39;jump&#39;, part_of_speech=&#39;verb-intransitive&#39;)`. I can&#39;t figure out how to manage these keys and values at the same time. But this could have larger functionality outside this context for other people.

How to check if one dictionary is a subset of another larger dictionary?

If I have an opened file, is there an `os` call to get the complete path as a string?

    f = open(&#39;/Users/Desktop/febROSTER2012.xls&#39;)

From `f`, how would I get `&quot;/Users/Desktop/febROSTER2012.xls&quot;` ?

Get path from open file in Python

If I have an opened file, is there an <code>os</code> call to get the complete path as a string?
<pre><code class="hljs language-ini">f = open('/Users/Desktop/febROSTER2012.xls')
</code></pre>
From <code>f</code>, how would I get <code>"/Users/Desktop/febROSTER2012.xls"</code> ?

What is the most &#39;pythonic&#39; way of finding an item in a list? Is it:

```
if item in my_list:
    print(&quot;Desired item is in list&quot;)
```

Python: Find in list

I have a Heroku project that uses environment variables to get its configuration, but I use virtualenv to test my app locally first.

Is there a way to set the environment variables defined on the remote machine inside virtualenv?

setting an environment variable in virtualenv

I know that `print(e)` (where e is an Exception) prints the occurred exception
but, I was trying to find the python equivalent of Java&#39;s `e.printStackTrace()` that exactly traces the exception to what line it occurred and prints the entire trace of it.

Could anyone please tell me the equivalent of `e.printStackTrace()` in Python?

e.printStackTrace equivalent in python

I am writing an application that performs REST operations using Kenneth Reitz&#39;s [requests library][1] and I&#39;m struggling to find a nice way to unit test these applications, because requests provides its methods via module-level methods.

What I want is the ability to synthesize the conversation between the two sides; provide a series of request assertions and responses.


  [1]: http://python-requests.org/

Unit testing a python app that uses the requests library

I am looking for someone to explain the basics of how to use, and not use `setattr()`.

My problem arose trying to use one class method/function to return data that is then put in another method/function. Perhaps a simpler approach would be much better in this case, but I&#39;m trying to understand how classes work/are used. This problem seems to hinge on `setattr()`, and this is my attempt to make a fairly simple use of this.    

Though it&#39;s not quite the same problem, I was following [Python The Hard Way, ex42](http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ex42.html)&amp;mdash;the `while` loop @ lines 18-41.

I tried writing an `\__init__()`, and using `getattr()` instead, thinking perhaps something needed to be in the class&#39; namespace, but this doesn&#39;t seem to help.

    #! /bin/python2.6
    
    class HolyGrail(object):

        def __init__(self):
            self.start = &#39;start_at_init&#39;

        # function definition in question:
        # TypeError: &#39;str&#39; object is not callable
        
        def run_it(self):
            start = setattr(self, &#39;name&#39;, &#39;get_thing&#39;)
            start = self.name
            
            # Something wrong here?
            value_returned = start() #I believe this == self.get_thing()
            use_it(value_returned)
    
        &quot;&quot;&quot;
        # alternate function definitions
        # NameError: global name &#39;start&#39; is not defined
    
        def __init__(self):
            self.start = &#39;get_thing&#39;

        def run_it(self):
            go_do_it = getattr(self, start)
            first_output = go_do_it()
            use_it(first_output)
        &quot;&quot;&quot;

        def get_thing(self):
            return &quot;The Knights Who Say ... Ni!&quot;

        def use_it(self, x):
            print x
            print &quot;We want a shrubbery!&quot;

    my_instance = HolyGrail()
    my_instance.run_it()


---------------

@Karl Knechtel, @Amber , @Chris Morgan  thanks for your help.

I think I can now explain my own answer! This required a better grasp of self as an object for me.  It&#39;s an instance name that gets tagged up with stuff like attributes.

The class could be a Town, and then.
`getattr` looks for a house using it&#39;s name so you are ready to call on it soon, and comes up with a different place if you don&#39;t find the house
--With `getattr` a &#39;name&#39; exists, and you go find it. Makes the step from one function to another dynamic
As a bonus you may have a default value, useful to get a fallback default method--connection failed or something?

`setattr` builds a house and gives it a name so you can call in on it later.
You could potentially rebuild this house, or go to a particular place if you are unable to find it.
--`setattr` makes an attribute name and gives, or changes it&#39;s value, to be called on later
Perhaps a user turns sound off, then future methods don&#39;t output any audio.

I could have written my function a number of ways, but there&#39;s no need to change any attributes:

    def run_it(self):
        yo = getattr(self, &#39;get_thing&#39;)
        answer = yo()
        setattr(self, &#39;deal_accepted&#39;, self.use_it) #really ott
        no = getattr(self, &#39;deal_accepted&#39;)
        no(answer)

Properly corrected code:

    def run_it(self):
        value_returned = self.get_thing()
        self.use_it(value_returned)



Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	David542	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Python	Tadeck	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Python	Zans	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Python	Ali Raza Bhayani	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Python	answerSeeker	View Answer on Stackoverflow

Get path from open file in Python

Python Problem Overview

Python Solutions

Solution 1 - Python

Solution 2 - Python

Solution 3 - Python

Solution 4 - Python

How to check if one dictionary is a subset of another larger dictionary?

What does "to stub" mean in programming?

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