How do I check if directory exists in Python?

You can use the os module to check if a directory exists. Here is an example of how you can do it:

Check if directory exists in Python using the os.path.isdir function

import os

# Check if directory exists
if os.path.isdir("./my_folder"):
    # Do something
    pass
else:
    # Do something else
    pass

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Alternatively, you can use the os.path.exists() function to check if a path exists. Note that this function returns True for both files and directories, so it is less specific than isdir().

Here is an example of how you can use os.path.exists() to check if a directory exists:

Check if directory exists in Python using the os.path.exists function

import os

# Check if directory exists
if os.path.exists("./my_folder"):
    # Do something
    pass
else:
    # Do something else
    pass

When to use which?

• Use os.path.isdir() when you specifically need to verify that the path is a directory.
• Use os.path.exists() when you only need to know if any file or directory exists at that path.

Modern alternative: pathlib In modern Python (3.4+), the pathlib module provides an object-oriented approach:

from pathlib import Path

if Path("./my_folder").is_dir():
    # Directory exists
    pass