What is the difference between an absolute and a relative path?

Question

I am asking because I am working on a project for school. Yes this is homework. But, I\'m trying to understand a little bit more, though.

This is one example of wha

Answer 1

Say you were giving directions to a spot. You have two methods you can describe getting to the location:

• Relative to where you stand,
• Relative to a landmark.

Both get you to the same location, but the former doesn't always work ("take a left, then a right, go through two lights then take another right" wouldn't necessarily work from the next town over, but works from where you stand). That's essentially the difference.

If you have C:\Windows\System32, that's an absolute path. If you have Windows\System32, it will only work so long as you're starting from C:\. If you start in C:\Program Files you would need a ..\ to get there correctly.

However, no matter where you are on the hard drive, C:\Windows\System32\ is a definitive way to get to that folder.