Node.js — Check If a Path Is a Directory

You may want to determine whether a given path is a directory when working with the file system in Node.js. Node.js comes with the fs core module allowing you to interact with the local hard disk.

This tutorial shows you how to combine existing fs methods to determine whether a given path points to a directory.

Node.js Series Overview

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  2. Remove All Whitespace From a String in JavaScript
  3. Generate a Random ID or String in Node.js or JavaScript
  4. Remove Extra Spaces From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  5. Remove Numbers From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  6. Get the Part Before a Character in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  7. Get the Part After a Character in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  8. How to Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. Check If a String Includes All Strings in JavaScript/Node.js/TypeScript
  10. Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript and Node.js
  11. Limit and Truncate a String to a Given Length in JavaScript and Node.js
  12. Split a String into a List of Characters in JavaScript and Node.js
  13. How to Generage a UUID in Node.js
  14. Reverse a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  15. Split a String into a List of Lines in JavaScript or Node.js
  16. Split a String into a List of Words in JavaScript or Node.js
  17. Detect if a String is in camelCase Format in Javascript or Node.js
  18. Check If a String Is in Lowercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  19. Check If a String is in Uppercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  20. Get the Part After First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  21. Get the Part Before First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  22. Get the Part Before Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  23. Get the Part After Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  24. How to Count Words in a File
  25. How to Shuffle the Characters of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  26. Append Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  27. Check if a String is Empty in JavaScript or Node.js
  28. Ensure a String Ends with a Given Character in JavaScript or Node.js
  29. Left-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  30. Right-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  31. Lowercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  32. Uppercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  33. Prepend Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  34. Check if a String is a Number
  35. Convert a String to Buffer
  36. Prevent Line Breaks in String Template Literals
  37. How to Implement a Custom `toString` Method
  38. What Is `Symbol.toStringTag` and How to Use It (Coming soon)

Determine Whether a File Path Is a Directory

Node.js doesn’t expose a first-party isDirectory method on the fs module. You must build it yourself with the existing low-level APIs.

Yet, Node.js provides you the needed helpers to compose an isDirectory(path) method using the fs core module. Here’s how you can build a helper method:

const { promises: Fs } = require('fs')

/**
 * Determine whether a directory exists at the given `path`.
 *
 * @param {String} path
 *
 * @returns {Boolean}
 */
async function isDirectory(path) {  
  const stats = await Fs.stat(path)

  return stats.isDirectory()
}

await isDirectory('./node_modules')  
// true

await isDirectory('./package.json')  
// false

Use the @supercharge/fs Package

I’m the maintainer of the @supercharge/filesystem package providing async file system methods. This package exposes an isDirectory(path) method determining whether the given path points to a directory:

const Fs = require('@supercharge/fs')

await Fs.isDirectory('./node_modules')  
// true

await Fs.isDirectory('./package.json')  
// false

Enjoy!


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