5. Prefer pathlib over os.path

Prefer pathlib when working with filesystem paths. It composes operations more cleanly than string-based os.path code.

Object-style path composition tends to read more like filesystem manipulation and less like manual string assembly. It also keeps related operations on one type instead of spreading them across several os.path helper calls.

5.1. Don’t do this

import os

path = os.path.join('data', 'reports', 'summary.txt')
if os.path.exists(path):
    print(os.path.basename(path))

5.2. Do this

from pathlib import Path

path = Path('data') / 'reports' / 'summary.txt'
if path.exists():
    print(path.name)