Python Check If a File Exists

Python Check If a File Exists

Introduction

Python programming language is an object-oriented programming language, interpreted and interactive. It has modules, exceptions, dynamic typing, dynamic data, and classes of extremely high level. It supports several programming paradigms, including procedural and functional programming, outside object-oriented programming. Python programming language combines outstanding power and simple syntax. It also has interfaces for a very huge number of system calls and libraries and is extendable in C or C++. It is also suitable for applications requiring programmable interfaces as an extension language. Finally, the Python programming language is portable: it operates on a wide variety of Unix versions, among which are Linux, macOS, and Windows. Today’s topic- Python Check If a File Exists.

Python programming language 

The programming language is high-level, universal, and highly popular. In web development, machine learning applications, together with every advanced software technology, the programming language of Python (last Python programming language 3) is utilized. Python Programming Language is also suitable for beginners and experienced programmers with other C++ and Java languages. 

The carefully prepared paper by Python programming language helps you learn most efficiently the Python programming language, from fundamental to complex subjects (such as web scraping, Django, Deep Learning). Examples are provided. 

Below are some facts concerning the language of Python programming 

  1. Currently Python is the high level programming language that is most utilized for several purposes like Web development, Data visualization, Programming applications, Finance Language development, Game development, Data analytics, AI and machine learning and many more. 
  2. In object-oriented and procedure paradigms, Python Programming Language permits programming. 
  3. In general, Python Programming Language applications are smaller than other languages such as Java. Programmers must write comparatively less and make language indentation requirements readable all the time. 
  4. Nearly all technological giants – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Uber etc – are using python’s language. 
  5. Python’s main strength is its vast standard library collection that may be utilized as follows: 
    • Learning Machine 
    • GUI apps (such as Kivy, Tkinter, PyQt, etc.) 
    • Django Web Frameworks (used by YouTube, Instagram, Dropbox) 
    • Pillow (e.g. OpenCV) Image treatment 
    • Scraping Web (like Scrapy, BeautifulSoup, Selenium) 
    • Frameworks for testing 
    • Multimedia 
    • Calculation of science 
    • Processing of texts and many more. 

Search for python files 

For each CLI application, it is very important to check if a file or script is in the right place. If a certain file is not in place at the time of execution, your application may be worthless. 

Before starting

Make sure you have Python Language 3 installed on your machine before running any of the commands below. Type the following command into your terminal: 

Let’s take a quick look at a code  of Python programming language :

python –version

# Python 3.9.5, my result

If you have a Python 2.x version, you must use the “python3” command. Ensure that the following files are created: 

touch testfile.txt

mkdir testdirectory/ 

touch testdirectory/otherfile.txt

The instructions above generate a test file, a testing directory, and a test file within the testing directory. We will not need to read the contents which are inside of files, so they may be empty. 

Note: If you’re using Windows, use a graphical file manager to create a basic file structure. 

Finally, we’ll use python as our interactive Python programming shell, which provides a nice user interface. This is simply a commodity, therefore it isn’t absolutely required. 

Let’s take a look at a code  of Python programming language 

pip install ipython

After that, just entering python will provide you access to a gorgeous Python programming language shell. 

Now that you’re ready, let’s look at some Python methods for checking if a folder or file exists

We looked at six distinct Python ways for doing so: 

• try-catch block

• pathlib

• isdir()

• os.listdir()

• isfile()

• exists()

Files are used to store data and contain a path that determines where the file is located. There are two sorts of paths. 

  1. Absolute Path
  2. Relative Path

Absolute Path:
Starting with the file system’s root folder, the file path defines the placement of the file. 

Example:
If a file named “joey.txt” is located in the “friends” folder in D Directory, its absolute path will be “D:\friends\joey.txt”.

Relative Path:
It is the file path that is relative to the current working directory, which also means. it determines the path from the current working directory. ‘.’ and the other is ‘..’. Here ‘.’ represents this directory and ‘..’ represents the parent folder

Example:
In this case, the relative path to the same file as before is specified as “..\Files\file.txt”.

When accessing files, we should include a try block since there is a chance of an exception due to various circumstances such as 

  • If the file you’re looking for doesn’t exist, 
  • If the file exists but is inaccessible, 
  • If the file was found during the search and destroyed before the contents were accessed, 

Because there is a chance of an exception occurring, the easiest method to check whether a file exists or not is to try to open it within the try block. 

When the file does not exist, it causes an IOErrorException. Because it prevents Race Conditions, we’d want to utilize try. 

Race Condition:
If we have many processes that can access the same file, and one of them deletes the file, access operations by other processes cause an exception, which causes the application to cease running. 

try:

Lets take a look at a code  of Python programming language 

    f = open(“filename.txt”)

    print(“file opened”)

except IOError:

    print(“File not accessible”)

finally:

    f.close()

Output:
If the file was successfully opened, it prints File opened; else, it prints File not accessible. 

The necessity for and types of methods for determining whether or not a file exists 

To avoid unexpected failures, we wish to verify if a file exists. It’s crucial to double-check to avoid overwriting a file. There are three basic methods for determining whether or not a file exists. To begin, we may use exception handling to verify. The os module is used in the second approach, while the pathlib module is used in the third. 

Exception Handling in Python is used to verify if a file exists. 

We can utilize exception handling to see if a file exists. It’s one of the most straightforward ways to see if a file exists. The open() method is used for this. Exceptions can be thrown in two different ways: 

FileNotFoundError

IOError

IOErrorFirst, we’ll investigate IOError. When an input or output operation fails, an IOError is thrown. It fails in this example because the open() method attempted to access a file that does not exist. A try-except block will be used. In the try block, we’ll try to open a file, and if the file isn’t found, the except block will report IOError. 

Lets take a look at a code of Python programming language.

12345try:    f = open(“filename.txt”)    f.close()except IOError:    print(“File not found. IOError occured.”

The following is the output: 

The file could not be found. An IOError has occurred. 

It displayed IOError because there was no file named ‘filename.txt’ on the system. 

FileNotFoundError 

FileNotFoundError is another exception we may throw. When a file we’re trying to access doesn’t exist in the system, the FileNotFoundError is thrown. 

Lets take a look at a code  of Python programming language to Check if File exist

123456try:    f = open(“filename.txt”)    f.close()except FileNotFoundError:    print(“File not found. FileNotFoundError occured.”)

Because the file ‘filename.txt’ does not exist, The print statement from the exception will be printed in the output. 

The file could not be found. There was a FileNotFoundError. 

The OS module of the Python programming language is To see if a file exists. 

The OS module, which is part of the Python programming language, includes routines for dealing with the computer’s operating system. The os module has three functions for determining whether or not a file exists. The os.path module’s isfile(), isdir(), and exists() functions are utilized for this. let’s take a look at each of the functions separately. 

os.path.isfile()

The os.path.isfile() function takes the file’s path as an input and checks it. It produces a bool result that is true if the path is there and false if it is not. 

We’ll need to import the os module first. The path of the file will then be assigned to the variable ‘pathname.’ The pathname is the filename since the code below was run in the collab. Finally, we’ll call the method os.path.exists() and provide the variable ‘path name’ to it as an input. 

The function will return true if the file is located at the provided location, and it will report that the file exists. In the first, if condition, we may additionally specify any further file actions that must be performed if the file exists. The function will return a false value if the file does not exist. As a result, the second statement will be printed. 

Lets take a look at a code  of Python programming language to Check if File exist

12345678import os path_name = “filename.txt” if os.path.exists(path_name):  print(“File exists”)else:  print(“File does not exist”)

If the “filename.txt” file does not exist, the result of the preceding code is: 

There is no such file. 

os.path.isdir()

The function os.path.isdir() tests if a file is present in a specified directoryIt accepts the directory path as an input. and returns a boolean result indicating whether or not the directory exists. In collab, we have a folder named ‘MyDirectory.’ To determine whether or not the directory exists, we’ll use os.path.isdir(). 

To begin, we’ll import the os module. Then we’ll name the route.  as the directory’s name and utilize an if-else case to determine whether or not that directory exists. 

Lets take a look at a code  of Python programming language to Check if File exist.

12345678import os path_name = “MyDirectory” if os.path.isdir(path_name):  print(“File exists”)else:  print(“File does not exist”)

It will print ‘File exists’ since the folder exists. 

There is a file. 

However, deleting the folder will result in the else statement being printed. 

There is no such file. 

os.path.exists()

The function os.path.exists() determines whether or not the specified path exists. It receives the path as an input and returns a boolean value, much like the other two functions. 

We have two folders in the Google collab: a MainFolder and a SubFolder inside the main folder. 

So, to see if the path for SubFolder exists, we’ll use os.path.exists(). 

Let’s take a look at a code of Python programming language to Check if Files exist.

12345678import os path_name = “/content/MainFolder/SubFolder” if os.path.exists(path_name):  print(“File exists”)else:  print(“File does not exist”)

It will print ‘File exists’ since the file exists. 

There is a file. 

The Pathlib module in Python is used to check if a file exists. 

To interface with the filesystem, the pathlib module in the Python programming language is needed. The pathlib module has three functions: exists(), is file(), and is dir() (). We’ll put all three approaches to the test to see how well they perform. 

pathlib.Path.exists()

The pathlib modules exists() method determines whether or not a given path exists. We’ll start by importing the pathlib module. Then, as an argument, we’ll send the pathname to the Path() method, which will return a value. We’ll use it to invoke the exists() function. We’ll publish the function’s return value instead of using an if-else case here. 

Lets take a look at a code of Python programming language to Check if File exist.

1234import pathlibpath_name = “MyDirectory”p = Path(path_name)print(p.exists())

The output will be True since the route exists. 

True 

pathlib.Path.is_dir()

Using the is dir() method, we’ll see if a specified directory exists or not. We’ll call the is dir() function with the return value after passing the directory name as an argument to the Path() method. 

Lets take a look at a code of Python programming language to Check if File exist.

1234import pathlibpath_name = “/content/MyDirectory”p = Path(path_name)print(p.is_dir())

The following is the result for an existing directory: 

True

pathlib.Path.is_file()

The is file() method determines whether or not a specified file exists. The file name will then be sent to the Path() method. It will produce a value that we will use to run the is file() method and print the return value of is file(). 

Lets take a look at a code of Python programming language to Check if File exist.

1234import pathlibpath_name = “filename.txt”p = Path(path_name)print(p.is_file())

It will print True since filename.txt exists. 

True

False would be printed if the file could not be located. 

Conclusion

We may use the Python programming language to generate a variety of files and save them to our computer’s local storage. Binary and text files are the two most common forms of files. Reading, adding, writing, and generating are some of the operations we can execute. To avoid unnecessary errors, we wish to conduct specific actions on a particular file only if the file exists. As a result, the Python programming language must determine whether or not There is a file. There are several methods for doing so, which we shall examine. 

Python Check If a File Exists

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