How to Check If a File Exists in a Folder in Python

Python is a powerful and versatile programming language with a wide range of uses. One common task that developers often face is the need to check if a file exists in a specific folder. This post will guide you through the process of how to do this in Python, step-by-step.

Python’s os Module

The first thing we need is to import Python’s built-in os module. This module provides a portable way of using operating system-dependent functionality, which includes checking if a file or a directory exists.

import os

Using os.path.exists

The os.path.exists() method in Python is used to check whether a specified path exists or not. This method can be also used to check whether a given path refers to an open file descriptor or not.

1	print(os.path.exists('/path/to/your/file.txt'))

Using os.path.isfile

Another way to check if a file exists is by using the os.path.isfile() method. This function returns True if the specified path is an existing regular file.

1	print(os.path.isfile('/path/to/your/file.txt'))

Using try…except

In Python, we can also use a try…except block to check if a file exists. This method is a more Pythonic way of handling the situation where the file might not exist.

try:

with open('/path/to/your/file.txt') as f:

pass

except IOError as e:

print('File does not exist')

Full Code

Here is the full code snippet implementing all of the above-described methods for checking if a file exists in Python.

import os

# Check if path exists

print(os.path.exists('/path/to/your/file.txt'))

# Check if path is a file

print(os.path.isfile('/path/to/your/file.txt'))

# Using try-except block