Simplifying Absolute Paths

Here is how I would enrich the absolute path simplification problem with more details and walkthroughs:

Simplifying Absolute Paths

In Unix, an absolute path locates a file/directory from the root directory. It can contain:

• . - Stands for the current directory
• .. - Stands for the parent directory
• Multiple / - Treated as a single /

A canonical path simplifies an absolute path by:

• Removing ., .. and extra /
• Keeping only real directory/file names

For example:

Absolute: /a/./b/../c
Canonical: /a/c

Here we removed: - . - Current directory in /a/./b - .. - Goes up from /b to /a
- Extra / between a and b

Leaving us with the simplified /a/c

Problem

Given an absolute path string, convert it to its canonical form.

Example 1

Input: /a/./b/../../c
Output: /c

Walkthrough: - /a/./b - Remove . - /a/b/../ - Go up from b to a - /a/../c - Go up from a to root - /c - Final simplified canonical path

Example 2

Input: /a//b////c/d//././/..
Output: /a/b/c

Walkthrough: - /a//b/ - Remove extra /
- /a/b/c/d//./. - Remove . and extra / - /a/b/c/d/.. - Go up from d to c - /a/b/c - Final simplified path

Constraints

• 1 <= path.length <= 3000
• path contains letters, digits, . / or _
• path is a valid Unix absolute path

The goal is to take an absolute path string and simplify it into its canonical form.