Python os.mkdir() Method

Junaid Khan Jan 30, 2023
  1. Syntax of the os.mkdir() Method
  2. Example 1: Create a Folder With the os.mkdir() Method in Python
  3. Example 2: Create a Folder at a Specific Location With the os.mkdir() Method in Python
  4. Example 3: Handle the FileExistsError Exception in Python
Python os.mkdir() Method

We use the os.mkdir() in Python to create a directory to a specified path. A path is sent as an argument to the os.mkdir() method for the directory folder, which is the only required argument for this function.

Syntax of the os.mkdir() Method

os.mkdir(path, mode=0o777, *, dir_fd=None)

Parameters

path Create a directory named path. FileExistsError is raised if the path directory is already present. FileNotFoundError is raised if the parent path directory is not present.
mode (optional) the mode is ignored in some systems
* shows the following parameters (dir_fd) are keyword-only
dir_fd (optional) Its default value is None. dir_fd is ignored, if the given path is absolute.

Return Value

This method doesn’t return any value.

Example 1: Create a Folder With the os.mkdir() Method in Python

We will create a folder named mywork by passing it as an argument inside the mkdir() function.

import os

os.mkdir("mywork")
print("the folder is created successfully")

Output:

the folder is created successfully

The above source code will create the folder named mywork inside the directory where you run the Python file. If you want to change the location of the newly created folder, then you can specify the complete directory location as an argument.

Let’s see the next example of how we can do so.

Example 2: Create a Folder at a Specific Location With the os.mkdir() Method in Python

To create a folder at a specific location/directory, you must pass the complete path as an argument.

import os

os.mkdir("E:\mywork")
print("the folder is created successfully")

Output:

the folder is created successfully

Example 3: Handle the FileExistsError Exception in Python

This FileExistsError error will occur if you create an existing directory. In the first example, we already created the mywork directory, let’s create it again from the same path, and we will see the error.

import os

# this directory is already created
os.mkdir("mywork")
print("the folder is created successfully")

Output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/tmp/user_code.py", line 4, in <module>
    os.mkdir("mywork")
FileExistsError: [WinError 183] Cannot create a file when that file already exists: 'mywork'

[Execution complete with exit code 1]

To provide a solution to this error on runtime, we can place a check to find whether a directory is already there or not. We can solve the above issue by using the following source code.

import os

path = "mywork"
if not os.path.isdir(path):
    print("The directory is not existed.")
    # create a new directory, if not found
    os.mkdir(path)
else:
    print("The directory already exists.")

Output:

The directory already exists.
Author: Junaid Khan
Junaid Khan avatar Junaid Khan avatar

Hi, I'm Junaid. I am a freelance software developer and a content writer. For the last 3 years, I have been working and coding with Python. Additionally, I have a huge interest in developing native and hybrid mobile applications.

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