pros and cons between os.path.exists vs os.path.isdir
Question:
I’m checking to see if a directory exists, but I noticed I’m using os.path.exists instead of os.path.isdir. Both work just fine, but I’m curious as to what the advantages are for using isdir instead of exists.
Answers:
os.path.exists will also return True if there’s a regular file with that name.
os.path.isdir will only return True if that path exists and is a directory, or a symbolic link to a directory.
Just like it sounds like: if the path exists, but is a file and not a directory, isdir will return False. Meanwhile, exists will return True in both cases.
Most of the time, it is the same.
But, path can exist physically whereas path.exists() returns False. This is the case if os.stat() returns False for this file.
If path exists physically, then path.isdir() will always return True. This does not depend on platform.
os.path.exists(path)
Returns True if path refers to an existing path. An existing path can
be regular files
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_file_types#Regular_file), but also
special files (e.g. a directory). So in essence this function returns
true if the path provided exists in the filesystem in whatever form
(notwithstanding a few exceptions such as broken symlinks).
os.path.isdir(path)
in turn will only return true when the path points to a directory
os.path.isdir() checks if the path exists and is a directory and returns TRUE for the case.
Similarly, os.path.isfile() checks if the path exists and is a file and returns TRUE for the case.
And, os.path.exists() checks if the path exists and doesn’t care if the path points to a file or a directory and returns TRUE in either of the cases.
I’m checking to see if a directory exists, but I noticed I’m using os.path.exists instead of os.path.isdir. Both work just fine, but I’m curious as to what the advantages are for using isdir instead of exists.
os.path.exists will also return True if there’s a regular file with that name.
os.path.isdir will only return True if that path exists and is a directory, or a symbolic link to a directory.
Just like it sounds like: if the path exists, but is a file and not a directory, isdir will return False. Meanwhile, exists will return True in both cases.
Most of the time, it is the same.
But, path can exist physically whereas path.exists() returns False. This is the case if os.stat() returns False for this file.
If path exists physically, then path.isdir() will always return True. This does not depend on platform.
os.path.exists(path)
Returns True if path refers to an existing path. An existing path can
be regular files
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_file_types#Regular_file), but also
special files (e.g. a directory). So in essence this function returns
true if the path provided exists in the filesystem in whatever form
(notwithstanding a few exceptions such as broken symlinks).os.path.isdir(path)
in turn will only return true when the path points to a directory
os.path.isdir() checks if the path exists and is a directory and returns TRUE for the case.
Similarly, os.path.isfile() checks if the path exists and is a file and returns TRUE for the case.
And, os.path.exists() checks if the path exists and doesn’t care if the path points to a file or a directory and returns TRUE in either of the cases.