How to create a Directory in python ?

In this article we will discuss different APIs in python to create directories.

Creating a Directory in Python

Python’s OS module provides a function to create a directory i.e.

os.mkdir(path)

It creates a directory with given path i.e.

os.mkdir('tempDir')

It creates the directory ‘tempDir’ in current directory.

If directory already exists then it will raise FileExistsError Error. So to avoid errors either we should call it using try / except i.e.

# Create directory
dirName = 'tempDir'

try:
    # Create target Directory
    os.mkdir(dirName)
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ") 
except FileExistsError:
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")

or we should first check if given folder exists or not i.e.

# Create target Directory if don't exist
if not os.path.exists(dirName):
    os.mkdir(dirName)
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ")
else:    
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")

os.mkdir(path) will create the given directory only, but it will not create the intermediate directory in the given path.

For example we want to create ‘temp/tempDir2/sample’ in current working directory. But neither temp or tempDir2 is present in current working directory. Hence it will throw error i.e.

dirName = 'tempDir2/temp2/temp'

os.mkdir(dirName)

Output:

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'tempDir2/temp2/temp'

os.mkdir(path) can not create intermediate directories in the given path,if they are not present. It will throws error in such cases. For that we need another API.

Creating Intermediate Directories in Python

Python’s OS module provides an another function to create a directories i.e.

os.makedirs(path)

os.makedirs(name) will create the directory on given path, also if any intermediate-level directory don’t exists then it will create that too.

Its just like mkdir -p command in linux.

Let’s create a directory with intermediate directories i.e.

dirName = 'tempDir2/temp2/temp'

# Create target directory & all intermediate directories if don't exists
os.makedirs(dirName)    

It will create all the directory ‘temp’ and all its parent directories if they don’t exists.

If target directory already exists then it will throw error. So, either call it using try / except i.e.

# Create target directory & all intermediate directories if don't exists
try:
    os.makedirs(dirName)    
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ")
except FileExistsError:
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")  

or before calling check if target directory already exists i.e.

# Create target directory & all intermediate directories if don't exists
if not os.path.exists(dirName):
    os.makedirs(dirName)
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ")
else:    
    print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")    

Complete example is as follows,

import os

def main():
    
    # Create directory
    dirName = 'tempDir'
    
    try:
        # Create target Directory
        os.mkdir(dirName)
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ") 
    except FileExistsError:
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")        
    
    # Create target Directory if don't exist
    if not os.path.exists(dirName):
        os.mkdir(dirName)
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ")
    else:    
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")
    
    dirName = 'tempDir2/temp2/temp'
    
    # Create target directory & all intermediate directories if don't exists
    try:
        os.makedirs(dirName)    
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ")
    except FileExistsError:
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")  
        
    
    # Create target directory & all intermediate directories if don't exists
    if not os.path.exists(dirName):
        os.makedirs(dirName)
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " Created ")
    else:    
        print("Directory " , dirName ,  " already exists")    
        
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Output:

Directory  tempDir  Created 
Directory  tempDir  already exists
Directory  tempDir2/temp2/temp  Created 
Directory  tempDir2/temp2/temp  already exists