How to check text file exists and is not empty in python How to check text file exists and is not empty in python python python

How to check text file exists and is not empty in python


To check whether file is present and is not empty, you need to call the combination of os.path.exists and os.path.getsize with the "and" condition. For example:

import osmy_path = "/path/to/file"if os.path.exists(my_path) and os.path.getsize(my_path) > 0:    # Non empty file exists    # ... your code ...else:    # ... your code for else case ...

As an alternative, you may also use try/except with the os.path.getsize (without using os.path.exists) because it raisesOSError if the file does not exist or if you do not have the permission to access the file. For example:

try:    if os.path.getsize(my_path) > 0:        # Non empty file exists        # ... your code ...    else:        # Empty file exists        # ... your code ...except OSError as e:    # File does not exists or is non accessible    # ... your code ...

References from the Python 3 document

  • os.path.getsize() will:

    Return the size, in bytes, of path. Raise OSError if the file does not exist or is inaccessible.

    For empty file, it will return 0. For example:

    >>> import os>>> os.path.getsize('README.md')0
  • whereas os.path.exists(path) will:

    Return True if path refers to an existing path or an open file descriptor. Returns False for broken symbolic links.

    On some platforms, this function may return False if permission is not granted to execute os.stat() on the requested file, even if the path physically exists.


On Python3 you should use pathlib.Path features for this purpose:

import pathlib as ppath = p.Path(f)if path.exists() and path.stat().st_size > 0:   raise RuntimeError("file exists and is not empty")

As you see the Path object contains all the functionality needed to perform the task.


You may want to try this:

def existandnotempty(fp):    if not os.path.isfile(fp):        retun False    k=0    with open(fp,'r') as f:        for l in f:          k+=len(l)          if k:             return False          k+=1    return True