Cookbooks
Python
Chapter 6. Files and I/O
Checking if a directory exists

Python:
Checking if a directory exists

How to:

Python provides native ways to check for a directory’s existence using the os and pathlib modules. Here are examples for both:

Using os module 

import os

# Specify the directory path
dir_path = "/path/to/directory"

# Check if the directory exists
if os.path.isdir(dir_path):
    print(f"The directory {dir_path} exists.")
else:
    print(f"The directory {dir_path} does not exist.")

Using pathlib module 

from pathlib import Path

# Specify the directory path
dir_path = Path("/path/to/directory")

# Check if the directory exists
if dir_path.is_dir():
    print(f"The directory {dir_path} exists.")
else:
    print(f"The directory {dir_path} does not exist.")

Third-party libraries

Although Python’s standard library is sufficient for checking if a directory exists, libraries like pathlib2 can be alternatives for consistency across Python versions or additional functionality.

Note: As of the latest Python versions, pathlib is robust enough for most use cases, making third-party libraries less necessary for this specific task.

Creating a temporary file