Node.js Path Module

📁 Node.js – Path Module

The Path module in Node.js provides utilities for working with file and directory paths.

It helps you:

Join paths
Resolve absolute paths
Get file extensions
Get file names
Normalize paths
Work with OS-specific path formats

It’s a built-in module → no installation required.

✅ 1. Import the Path Module

🔹 2. path.join()

Joins multiple path segments into a single path
(Automatically handles slashes)

Output:

🔹 3. path.resolve()

Returns an absolute path

Example output:

🔹 4. path.basename()

Returns the file name

Output:

Get file name without extension:

🔹 5. path.dirname()

Returns directory name of a path

Output:

🔹 6. path.extname()

Returns file extension

Output:

🔹 7. path.parse()

Returns an object with full path details

Output:

🔹 8. path.format()

Opposite of parse()
Creates a path string from an object

Output:

🔹 9. path.normalize()

Fixes incorrect/messy paths

Output:

🔹 10. path.isAbsolute()

Checks if a path is absolute

Output:

🔹 11. path.sep

Path separator used by OS

Windows → \
Linux/Mac → /

🔹 12. path.join() vs path.resolve()

Feature	join()	resolve()
Combines path parts	✅	❌
Returns absolute path	❌	✅
Handles `..` or `.`	❌	✅

Example:

⭐ Complete Example

const path = require("path");

const filePath = "/user/local/server/app.js";

console.log("Base:", path.basename(filePath));
console.log("Dir:", path.dirname(filePath));
console.log("Ext:", path.extname(filePath));
console.log("Parsed:", path.parse(filePath));
console.log("Formatted:", path.format(path.parse(filePath)));
console.log("Joined:", path.join("user", "docs", "notes.txt"));
console.log("Resolved:", path.resolve("notes.txt"));

const path = require("path");

const filePath = "/user/local/server/app.js";

console.log("Base:", path.basename(filePath));

console.log("Dir:", path.dirname(filePath));

console.log("Ext:", path.extname(filePath));

console.log("Parsed:", path.parse(filePath));

console.log("Formatted:", path.format(path.parse(filePath)));

console.log("Joined:", path.join("user", "docs", "notes.txt"));

console.log("Resolved:", path.resolve("notes.txt"));

🎯 Summary Table

Method	Description
join()	Join multiple paths
resolve()	Get absolute path
basename()	File name
dirname()	Folder name
extname()	File extension
parse()	Break path into parts
format()	Create path from parts
normalize()	Fix path formatting
isAbsolute()	Check absolute path
sep	System path separator

Node.js Path Module