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In computing, a path is a string of characters that represents the unique location of a file or directory within a computer's hierarchical file system. A path functions as a "road map" that tells the operating system how to navigate through a tree-like folder structure to find a specific resource.

Parts of a path

A path is made up of several parts, typically formatted as follows: root directory_names filename.

Root directory: The starting point of the file system. On a Windows machine, this is usually a drive letter like C:\. On Unix-like systems (Linux and macOS), it is a single forward slash, /.

Directory names: A sequence of folders that must be opened to reach the final destination. The names are separated by a delimiter.

Delimiter: The character used to separate directory and file names. It is a backslash \ on Windows and a forward slash / on Unix-like systems.

Filename: The name of the target file, which often includes an extension (e.g., .txt, .exe).