How to check if folder is empty with Python?

Question

You can use these two methods from the os module.

First option:

import os
if len(os.listdir('/your/path')) == 0:
    print("Directory is empty")
else:    
    print("Directory is not empty")

Second option (as an empty list evaluates to False in Python):

import os
if not os.listdir('/your/path'):
    print("Directory is empty")
else:    
    print("Directory is not empty")

However, the os.listdir() can throw an exception, for example when the given path does not exist. Therefore, you need to cover this.

import os
dir_name="/your/path"
if os.path.isdir(dir_name):
    if not os.listdir(dir_name):
        print("Directory is empty")
    else:    
        print("Directory is not empty")
else:
    print("Given directory doesn't exist")

I hope it will be helpful for you.

Note that os.listdir(dir_name) does not include the special entries ‘.’ and ‘..’ even if they are present in the directory.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20180531030548/http://thispointer.com/python-how-to-check-if-a-directory-is-empty

Leave a Comment Cancel reply