is there a filepath shortening procedure ?

There are many options actually.
There is a function that reads the folder path from the current filename "ExtractFileDir", so what I did is added a dummy extension to the folderpath and used that function so is stripes the filename and returns the parent directory:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  s:string;
begin
  s:= 'D:\Images\Raccoons';
  if s[length(s)] = '\' then
    delete(s,length(s),1);
  showmessage(ExtractFileDir(s+'.ext'));
end;

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A better way is to use copy function to copy the entire path up to the last "\" in the provided path:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  Str:string;
begin
  Str := 'D:\Images\Raccoons\';
  if Str[length(Str)] = '\' then
    delete(Str,length(Str),1);           // to ensure the last slash in the path is for the parent directory
  showmessage(Copy(Str,1,LastDelimiter('\',Str)));
end;

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I have read in About.com another way also you may see useful which using "ExpandFileName" and provide the parent directory indicator "\.." so it returns the path of the parent directory:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  Str:string;
begin
 Str:= 'D:\Images\Raccoons\';
 Showmessage(ExpandFileName(Str + '\..'));
end;

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If you are using the FileSystemObject, you can use the ParentFolder property.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dt64ftxb(v=vs.85).aspx

Thank you for your help and quick response. I ended up using the solution from Bobcsi. I am sure others would have worked also and I learn from the information even if I didn't use it this time.
I used that solution because it looked the shortest and so I tried it first and it worked.
I used it to implement an up button for a ShellFileView. Here is that code:
ShellListView1.Root := (ExtractFilePath(ExcludeTrailingPathDelimiter(ShellListView1.RootFolder.PathName)));

Thank You

Your welcome!