Python - ConfigParser and pathlib Path WindowsPath

I am reading a configuration file with ConfigParser. Until now, I was storing the paths to my files as str. I decided to improve my code by using Path from pathlib.

I now have the following error: configparser.NoSectionError: No section:. I understand from this answer that the error comes from my WindowsPath having backslashes.

Question: How can I path a WindowsPath to ConfigParser without throwing an error?

You're getting configparser.NoSectionError not because you're using WindowsPath or backslashes — it's because you're calling set() or get() on a section that doesn't exist yet.

Solution:

Before setting a path, make sure to add the section:

from configparser import ConfigParser
from pathlib import Path

config = ConfigParser()
config.add_section('Paths')  # Add this line

config.set('Paths', 'file', str(Path(r'C:\Users\Example\File.txt')))

with open('config.ini', 'w') as f:
    config.write(f)

Reading it back:

config.read('config.ini')
file_path = Path(config.get('Paths', 'file'))