In an example:var assets = images/var sounds = assets+sounds/Is it more conventional to put the slash on the back of a file path?var assets = /imagesvar sounds = assets+/soundsIs there another method that is a good common practice?
Is there a conventional way to combine file path strings?
conventions;file structure
Nearly every major programming language has a library to handle the directory separators for you. You should leverage them. This will simplify your code and prevent bugs.In my experience, the usual reason for combining strings like this is that they come from different sources. Sometimes it's different pieces from a configuration file. Sometimes it's a constant combining with a function argument. In any and all cases, when they come from different sources, you have to consider several different possible cases regarding the separators on the ends to be combined:Both ends could have a separator: images/ and /soundsOnly one has a separator: images and /sounds or images/ and soundsNeither has a separator: images and soundsThe fact each part comes from a different source means each source might have its own ideas about what conventions to follow, if someone gave any thought to it at all! Whatever is calling your code should not have to worry about this. Your code should handle all cases because someone will violate your convention. This will result in wasted time investigating the cause of an error and making a fix. I have had several unpleasant occasions where a coworker made an assumption about how paths should be formatted in a configuration file, meaning I had to go hunt down the code and figure out what they were expecting (or fix the code).Most major languages provide a method to do this for you that already handles many of the cases:os.path.join for PythonFile.join for RubyPath.join for Node.jsPaths.get for Java (7 and up)Path.Combine for .NETThere is a caveat with these. A number of these seem to assume that a leading directory separator in the second argument refers to a root path and that this means the first argument should be dropped entirely. I don't know why this is considered useful; for me, it just causes problems. I've never wanted to combine two path portions and end up with the first part being dropped. Read the documentation carefully for special cases, and if necessary, write a wrapper that does what you want with these instead of their special handling.This additionally helps if you have any need for supporting different operating systems. These classes almost ubiquitously account for choosing the correct separator. The libraries usually have a way of normalizing paths to fit the OS conventions, as well.In the event that your programming language does not have a readily available library, you should write a method that handles all these cases and use it liberally and across projects.This falls into the category of don't make assumptions and use tools that help you.