Check if node exists in h5py

Question

I am wondering if there is a simple way to check if a node exists within an HDF5 file using h5py.

I couldn't find anything in the docs, so right now I'm using exceptions, which is ugly.

# check if node exists
# first assume it exists
e = True
try:
  h5File["/some/path"]
except KeyError:
  e = False # now we know it doesn't

To add context: I'm using this to determine if a node exists before trying to create a new node with the same name.

Answer 1

You can also simply use require_group() method for groups. H5py Docs.

Answer 2

After checking the documentation at group docs. I assume you can use the keys method of the group object to check before usage:

# check if node exists
# first assume it doesn't exist
e = False
node = "/some/path"
if node in h5file.keys():
    h5File[node]
    e = True