Python Directory

In this blog, we will learn about directory management in Python.

Directory class

A directory is a collection of files and sub-directories. Python provides os modules for dealing with directories.
Some important directory method they are listed below:
  1. getcwd()
  2. chdir()
  3. listdir()
  4. path.exists()
  5. mkdir()
  6. rename()
  7. rmdir()

Current Directory

getcwd() method is used to get your current working directory path.
  1. import os
  2. print(os.getcwd())

Change Directory

Change your current working directory using chdir() method. It takes a full file path.
  1. import os
  2. print(os.chdir('D:\\CCA'))
  3. print(os.getcwd())

List Directories and files

List all files and sub-directories inside a directory using listdir() method. The listdir() method take a full directory path. If you don't provide directory path then it takes the current working directory.
  1. import os
  2. print(os.listdir())
  3. print(os.listdir('D:\\CCA'))

Check if a directory exists or not

The path.exists() method is used to check if a directory exists or not. If directory exists than returns TRUE else returns FALSE.
  1. import os
  2. if os.path.exists('D:\\CCA\\Science'):
  3. print('Directory already exists.')
  4. else:
  5. print('Directory doesn\'t exists.')

Create a new directory

You can create a new directory using the mkdir() method. This method takes the full path of the new directory, if you don't provide a full path than the new directory is created in the current working directory.
  1. import os
  2. os.chdir('D:\\CCA') #Change the current path
  3. if os.path.exists('D:\\CCA\\Kumar'): #Check directory exists or not
  4. print('Directory already exists.')
  5. else:
  6. os.mkdir('Kumar') #directory creating
  7. print('Directory created successfully...')

Rename a directory

You can rename a directory using rename() method. This method takes two arguments. The first argument is old directory name and the second argument is new directory name.
  1. import os
  2. os.chdir('D:\\CCA')
  3. if os.path.exists('D:\\CCA\\Kumar'):
  4. os.rename('Kumar','Sarfaraj')
  5. print('Directory is renamed successfully...')
  6. else:
  7. print('Drectory doesn\'t exists.')

Delete a directory

The rmdir() method is used to delete an empty directory. It takes a full file path.
  1. import os
  2. os.chdir('D:\\CCA')
  3. if os.path.exists('D:\\CCA\\Sarfaraj'):
  4. os.rmdir('Sarfaraj')
  5. print('Directory deteted successfully...')
  6. else:
  7. print('Drectory doesn\'t exists.')

Summary

In this blog, I covered some directory related methods in python and saw examples of how to use these methods. Thanks for reading.