Every file comes with a set of details that we can inspect using Node.

In particular, using the stat() method provided by the fs module.

You call it passing a file path, and once Node gets the file details it will call the callback function you pass, with 2 parameters: an error message, and the file stats:

const fs = require('fs')
fs.stat('/Users/flavio/test.txt', (err, stats) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err)
    return
  }
  //we have access to the file stats in `stats`
})

Node provides also a sync method, which blocks the thread until the file stats are ready:

const fs = require('fs')
try {
  const stats = fs.stat('/Users/flavio/test.txt')
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err)
}

The file information is included in the stats variable. What kind of information can we extract using the stats?

A lot, including:

• if the file is a directory or a file, using stats.isFile() and stats.isDirectory()
• if the file is a symbolic link using stats.isSymbolicLink()
• the file size in bytes using stats.size.

There are other advanced methods, but the bulk of what you’ll use in your day-to-day programming is this.

const fs = require('fs')
fs.stat('/Users/flavio/test.txt', (err, stats) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err)
    return
  }

  stats.isFile() //true
  stats.isDirectory() //false
  stats.isSymbolicLink() //false
  stats.size //1024000 //= 1MB
})

Lessons in this unit:

0:	Introduction
1:	How to check if a file exists in Node.js
2:	How to create an empty file in Node.js
3:	How to get the names of all the files in a folder in Node
4:	How to get the last updated date of a file using Node.js
5:	How to remove a file with Node.js
6:	How to write a JSON object to file in Node.js
7:	How to empty a folder in Node.js
8:	Working with file descriptors in Node
9:	Node File Paths
10:	▶︎ Node file stats
11:	Working with folders in Node
12:	How to use the Node.js fs module with async/await
13:	How to get the current folder in Node
14:	How to get the file extension in Node.js from the MIME type
15:	How to get the file extension in Node.js
16:	How to list files in a folder in Node
17:	How to mass rename files in Node.js
18:	Node.js get all files in a folder recursively
19:	Incrementing multiple folders numbers at once using Node.js
20:	Save some text to a file in Node.js