Topic
1. Read File2. Write File3. Append to File4. Read CSV File5. Write CSV File6. JSON Read7. JSON Write8. File Copy9. File Rename10. Read Binary File11. Write Binary File12. Count Words in File13. Count Lines in File14. Count Characters in File15. Search Substring in File16. Iterate File Lines17. File Metadata18. File Compression19. File Decompression20. Delete File

Delete File in Python

Delete a file from disk using os.remove.

BeginnerFile Handling ProgramsExample 20 of 20
delete-file.py
1# Program to delete a file
2

3import os
4

5filename = input("Enter filename to delete: ")
6

7if os.path.exists(filename):
8    os.remove(filename)
9    print("Deleted", filename)
10else:
11    print("File does not exist.")

Output

Enter filename to delete: old.tmp
Deleted old.tmp

What's going on

os.path.exists checks for the file first to avoid raising an exception when calling os.remove.

After this program

If the idea is still fuzzy, read Day 14: File Handling in the Python course. For a short check, try the Python quiz (300 questions). Stay with all 20 file handling programs, or see every topic on Python exercises.

PreviousFile Decompression