Sometimes the need to check whether a directory or file exists or not becomes important because maybe you want to prevent overwriting to the already existing file, or maybe you want to make sure that the file is available or not before loading it.
There are various ways to check whether a file or directory already exists or not.
Using os.path.exists() to check if file exists
OS module in Python provides functions for interacting with the operating system. OS comes under Python’s standard utility modules. This module provides a portable way of using operating system-dependent functionality. os.path module is a submodule of the OS module in Python used for common path name manipulation.
Note: To know more about the os module.
os.path.exists a () method in Python is used to check whether the specified path exists or not. This method can also be used to check whether the given path refers to an open file descriptor or not.
Syntax: os.path.exists(path)
Parameter:
- path: A path-like object representing a file system path. A path-like object is either a string or bytes object representing a path.
Return: Returns a boolean representing whether the path exists or not.
Example: Checking if a path exists using os.path.exists()
Python3
import os # Specify pathpath = '/usr/local/bin/' # Check whether the specified# path exists or notisExist = os.path.exists(path)print(isExist) # Specify pathpath = '/home/User/Desktop/file.txt' # Check whether the specified# path exists or notisExist = os.path.exists(path)print(isExist) |
Output:
True False
Using os.path.isfile() Method to check if file exists
os.path.isfile() method in Python is used to check whether the specified path is an existing regular file or not.
Syntax: os.path.isfile(path)
Parameter:
path: A path-like object representing a file system path. A path-like object is either a string or bytes object representing a path.
Return Type: This method returns a Boolean value of class bool. This method returns True if specified path is an existing regular file, otherwise returns False.
Example:
Checking if a path pointing to a resource is a file
Python3
import os# Pathpath = 'C:/Users/gfg/Desktop/file.txt'# Check whether a path pointing to a fileisFile = os.path.isfile(path)print(isFile)# Pathpath = '/home/User/Desktop/'# Check whether the path is a fileisFile = os.path.isfile(path)print(isFile) |
Output:
True False
Using os.path.isdir() Method to check if file exists
os.path.isdir() method in Python is used to check whether the specified path is an existing directory or not. This method follows a symbolic link, which means if the specified path is a symbolic link pointing to a directory, then the method will return True.
Syntax: os.path.isdir(path)
Parameter:
- path: A path-like object representing a file system path.
Return Type: This method returns a Boolean value of class bool. This method returns True if specified path is an existing directory, otherwise returns False.
Example:
Check if a path is a directory using os.path.isdir()
Python3
import os.path # Pathpath = '/home/User/Documents/file.txt' # Check whether the path is an existing directoryisdir = os.path.isdir(path)print(isdir) # Pathpath = '/home/User/Documents/' # Check whether the path is a directoryisdir = os.path.isdir(path)print(isdir) |
Output:
False True
Example:
If the specified path is a symbolic link.
Python3
import os.path # Create a directorydirname = "GeeksForGeeks"os.mkdir(dirname) # Create a symbolic link# pointing to above directorysymlink_path = "/home/User/Desktop/gfg"os.symlink(dirname, symlink_path) path = dirname # Check whether the specified path is an# existing directory or notisdir = os.path.isdir(path)print(isdir) path = symlink_path # check whether the symlink is# an existing directory or notisdir = os.path.isdir(path)print(isdir) |
Output:
True True
Using pathlib.Path.exists() to check if the file exists
pathlib module in Python provides various classes representing file system paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems. This module comes under Python’s standard utility modules. Path classes in pathlib module are divided into pure paths and concrete paths. Pure paths provide only computational operations but do not provide I/O operations, while concrete paths inherit from pure paths provide computational as well as I/O operations. You can read about pathlib module in detail here.
pathlib.Path.exists() method is used to check whether the given path points to an existing file or directory or not.
Syntax: pathlib.Path.exists(path)
Parameter:
path: A path-like object representing a file system path.
Return Type: This method returns a Boolean value of class bool. This method returns True if path exists otherwise returns False.
Example:
Check if the path exists using pathlib module
Python3
# Import Path classfrom pathlib import Path# Pathpath = '/home/tuhingfg/Desktop'# Instantiate the Path classobj = Path(path)# Check if path existsprint("path exists?", obj.exists()) |
Output:
True
