Python os.path.exists() Method

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The Python os.path.exists() method is used to check whether a specified path exists in the file system.

If the path exists, it can refer to any type of file system object, such as a regular file, directory, symbolic link, or special file. If the path does not exist or if there are permission issues preventing access to the path, the method returns False.

Syntax

Following is the basic syntax of the Python os.path.exists() method −

os.path.exists(path)

Parameter

This method accepts a string as a parameter representing the path that you want to check for existence.

Return Value

The method returns a boolean value "True" or "False". It returns True if the specified path exists in the file system, otherwise it returns False.

Example

In the following example, we are checking whether the file path "/home/lenovo/documents/file.txt" exists in the filesystem using the exists() method −

import os
file_path = "/home/lenovo/documents/file.txt"
exists = os.path.exists(file_path)
print("The result is:",exists)      

Output

The output obtained is as follows −

The result is: True

Example

Here, we are checking whether the Windows file path "C:\Users\user\Documents\file.txt" exists in the filesystem using the exists() method −

import os
file_path = "C:\\Users\\user\\Documents\\file.txt"
exists = os.path.exists(file_path)
print("The result is:",exists)   

Output

Following is the output of the above code −

The result is: True

Example

In this example, we are checking whether the given symbolic link path "link_path" exists in the filesystem using the exists() method −

import os
link_path = "/home/lenovo/symlink"
exists = os.path.exists(link_path)
print("The result is:",exists)      

Output

The result produced is as shown below −

The result is: True

Example

This example shows that if the given path is non-existent, the exists() method returns False −

import os
path = "/non/existent/path"
exists = os.path.exists(path)
print("The result is:",exists)  

Output

We get the output as shown below −

The result is: False