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Creating directories and handling exceptions in Python

Example of os.mkdir() and os.makedirs() methods: Here, we are going to learn how to create a single or multiple directories in Python, here we are also learning how to handle the exceptions while creating the directories?
Submitted by Sapna Deraje Radhakrishna, on September 25, 2019

Python os.mkdir() method

The built-in, 'os' module is useful in creating directories. The syntax to create the directory is,

    os.mkdir(<path>)

Python code to create directory

# importing the module
import os

#method calling by passing directory name
os.mkdir('test')

The above example creates directory in the current directory.

Exception Handling during directory creation

Step1: Check if the folder exists

# importing the module
import os

# directory name
folder_name = 'test'

# checking whether folder/directory exists
if not os.path.exists(folder_name):
    os.mkdir(folder_name)
    print("folder '{}' created ".format(folder_name))
else:
    print("folder {} already exists".format(folder_name))

Output

folder test already exists

Step2: If the directory already exists, the application will raise a 'FileExistsError' Error. In order to avoid exceptions, it is always advisable to use try/except

# importing the module
import os

# directory name
folder_name = 'test'

# checking whether folder/directory exists
try:
    os.mkdir(folder_name)
    print("folder '{}' created ".format(folder_name))
except FileExistsError:
    print("folder {} already exists".format(folder_name))

Output

folder test already exists

Create directories including the child directories

The syntax 'os.mkdir(<path>)' cannot create an intermediate directory, the given path, if they are not present. The error it throws in such scenarios is,

# importing the module
import os

# creating directory with child directory
# Here, error will generate
os.mkdir('test1/test')

Output

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 6, in <module>
    os.mkdir('test1/test')
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'test1/test'

Note: The os.mkdir() does create a child directory for test1, if test1 was already present.

To create a directory with its child directories, the function 'makedirs()' is used.

# importing the module
import os

# creating directory with child directories
os.makedirs('test/test3')

Exception Handling during directory creation using os.makedirs()

Step1: Check if the folder exists

# importing the module
import os

# creating directory with child directories
folder_name = 'test/test3'
if not os.path.exists(folder_name):
    os.makedirs(folder_name)
    print("folder '{}' created ".format(folder_name))
else:
    print("folder {} already exists".format(folder_name))

Output

folder 'test/test3' already exists

Step2: If the directory already exists, the application will raise a ‘FileExistsError’ Error. In order to avoid exceptions, it is always advisable to use try/except

# importing the module
import os

# creating directory with child directories
folder_name = 'test/test3'

try:
    os.makedirs(folder_name)
    print("folder '{}' created ".format(folder_name))
except FileExistsError:
    print("folder {} already exists".format(folder_name))

Output

folder 'test/test3' already exists