Taking a file path from user input in Python

# Taking a file path from user input in Python

To take a file path from user input:

Use the input() function to take the file path as input from the user.
Use the os.path.exists() method to check if the specified path exists.

main.py

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import os

file_path = input('Enter a file path: ')

# e.g. C:\Users\Bob\Desktop\example.txt
# or /home/Bob/Desktop/example.txt
print(file_path)

if os.path.exists(file_path):
    print('The file exists')

    with open(file_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8-sig') as f:
        lines = f.readlines()

        print(lines)
else:
    print('The specified file does NOT exist')

take file path from user input

The code for this article is available on GitHub

We used the input() function to take a file path from user input.

The input function takes an optional prompt argument and writes it to standard output without a trailing newline.

The next step is to use the os.path.exists() method to check if the file or directory exists.

The os.path.exists() method returns True if the provided path exists and False otherwise.

The path may look something like: C:\Users\Bob\Desktop\example.txt (Windows) or /home/Bob/Desktop/example.txt (Linux and MacOS).

# Opening the file with the specified path if it exists

You can use the with statement to open the specified file if it exists.

main.py

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import os

file_path = input('Enter a file path: ')

# e.g. C:\Users\Bob\Desktop\example.txt
# or /home/Bob/Desktop/example.txt
print(file_path)

if os.path.exists(file_path):
    print('The file exists')

    with open(file_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8-sig') as f:
        lines = f.readlines()

        print(lines)

else:
    print('The specified file does NOT exist.')

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The with open() syntax takes care of automatically closing the file even if an exception is raised.

# Raising an error if the specified path doesn't exist

If the provided path doesn't exist, the else statement runs and we print a message to the user.

You can handle this any other way that suits your use case, e.g. by raising an error.

main.py

Copied!
import os

file_path = input('Enter a file path: ')

# e.g. C:\Users\Bob\Desktop\example.txt
# or /home/Bob/Desktop/example.txt
print(file_path)

if os.path.exists(file_path):
    print('The file exists')

    with open(file_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8-sig') as f:
        lines = f.readlines()

        print(lines)

else:
    raise FileNotFoundError('No such file or directory.')

user input file path raise error

The code for this article is available on GitHub

If the provided path doesn't exist, the else block runs where we raise a FileNotFoundError exception.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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Taking a file path from user input in Python