Python | os.path.exists() method

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

os.path.exists() Syntax in Python

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 Type: This method returns a Boolean value of class bool. This method returns True if path exists otherwise returns False.

Check if a File Exists in Python Examples

There are various examples of checking Python OS Path that exist using the above method. here we are discussing some generally used ways to check whether Python OS Path exists or not those are following.

Check whether Python OS Path exists or not

In this example Python OS module checks if two specified paths exist. The first path is '/usr/local/bin/', and the second is '/home/User/Desktop/file.txt'. The script prints `True` if the paths exist and `False` otherwise.

# importing os module 
import os

# Specify path
path = '/usr/local/bin/'

# Check whether the specified
# path exists or not
isExist = os.path.exists(path)
print(isExist)


# Specify path
path = '/home/User/Desktop/file.txt'

# Check whether the specified
# path exists or not
isExist = os.path.exists(path)
print(isExist)

True
False

Check if a File or Directory Exists

In this example code uses os.path.exists() to check if the specified file or directory at '/path/to/your/file.txt' exists. The output depends on whether the file or directory exists or not.

import os

# Specify a file path
file_path = '/path/to/your/file.txt'

# Check if the file or directory exists
if os.path.exists(file_path):
    print(f'The file or directory at {file_path} exists.')
else:
    print(f'The file or directory at {file_path} does not exist.')

Output:

The file or directory at /path/to/your/file.txt does not exist.

Note: os.path.exists() function may return False, if permission is not granted to execute os.stat() on the requested file, even if the path exists.