How to Change Working Directory in Python

This article discusses how you can change the current working directory from Python into another location.

Use the os Module to Change Directory in Python

Suppose, for some reason, you want to change your working directory via Python instead of the command console. In that case, the module os provides tools for miscellaneous operating system utilities directly through Python.

import os

Let’s say you’re currently in a working directory in /Users/user and want to change to Users/user2. First, verify the current working directory you’re in by printing out the result of os.getcwd(). Next is to call the os.chdir("Users/user2")) block to switch the current working directory.

print(os.getcwd())
os.chdir("/Users/user2")
print(os.getcwd())

Output:

/Users/user
/Users/user2

It verifies that your program has successfully switched working directories from user to user2.

Exception Checking

The path is user-inputted, so input errors are very likely. For example, the user inputs a non-existent path; this function will likely be very prone to FileNotFound exceptions. Given that, we should implement exception checking.

Use if-else to Check for Errors

The simple way to do it is to check if the path specified exists by using if-else:

import os


def changeDir(newPath):
    if os.path.exists(newPath):
        os.chdir("Directory moved: ", newPath)
        print(os.getcwd())
    else:
        print("Directory ", newPath, " not found.")


print("Base directory: ", os.getcwd())
changeDir("/Users/user2")
changeDir("/Users/nonexistentpath")

Let’s assume that /Users/user2 is an existing file path, and /Users/nonexistentpath does not exist.

Output:

Base directory:  /Users/user
Directory moved:  /Users/user2
Directory  Users/nonexistentpath  not found.

The first call to the changeDir() block went through the if statement because the path exists. On the other hand, the second goes through the else and prints an error-like message because the path doesn’t exist.

Use try...except to Check for Errors

If the os.chdir() command doesn’t find the file path, it will throw a FileNotFoundError notification. To catch this, we need to wrap the code around a try...except block.

import os


def changeDir(newPath):
    try:
        os.chdir(newPath)
        print("Directory moved:  newPath")
    except OSError:
        print("Directory ", newPath, "does not exist.")


print("Base directory: ", os.getcwd())
changeDir("/Users/user2")
changeDir("/Users/nonexistentpath")

Output:

Base directory:  /Users/user
Directory moved:  /Users/user2
Directory  Users/nonexistentpath  does not exist.

More or less, both produce the same output; however, using the try...except exception handling is much safer than using an if-else statement. It’s because user-defined conditions might not cover all the possible exceptions that could occur in tackling file path manipulation.

In summary, the os module provides extensive support for file and directory manipulation, among the other utilities that it offers.

We can directly change the working directory using the os.chdir() block, but it would be safer to wrap it around either if-else or try...except blocks to avoid exceptions from happening.

If you want to explore more on file manipulation, exception handling and updating file names or content are incredibly important.