Quick Tip: Checking if a file exists before requiring it, using node.js

Quick tips are small snippets that come up again and again in my work, for which I want a permantent and central place to retrieve them.

Here's the situation: You want to require() a .json file that might or might not yet exist.

const jsonContent = require('path/to/fileThatMightNotExist.json')

If it exists, this will work fine, if it doesn't, this will blow up. To make sure that is exists before you load it up, simply add the following:

const fs = require('fs')

if (!fs.existsSync('path/to/fileThatMightNotExist.json')) {
  fs.writeFileSync('path/to/fileThatMightNotExist.json', JSON.stringify({}))
}

// now exists, despite the name
const jsonContent = require('path/to/fileThatMightNotExist.json') 

Now, regardless of the environment this is run in, everything should work fine.