See [this stackoverflow question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4990990/check-if-a-file-exists-with-lua)

Some of these use the `lfs` module. Note that [neovim](/editor/nvim) *does* have `lfs`.
```lua
require("lfs")
-- no function checks for errors.
-- you should check for them

function isFile(name)
    if type(name)~="string" then return false end
    if not isDir(name) then
        return os.rename(name,name) and true or false
        -- note that the short evaluation is to
        -- return false instead of a possible nil
    end
    return false
end

function isFileOrDir(name)
    if type(name)~="string" then return false end
    return os.rename(name, name) and true or false
end

function isDir(name)
    if type(name)~="string" then return false end
    local cd = lfs.currentdir()
    local is = lfs.chdir(name) and true or false
    lfs.chdir(cd)
    return is
end
```

Without `lfs`
```lua
-- no require("lfs")

function exists(name)
    if type(name)~="string" then return false end
    return os.rename(name,name) and true or false
end

function isFile(name)
    if type(name)~="string" then return false end
    if not exists(name) then return false end
    local f = io.open(name)
    if f then
        f:close()
        return true
    end
    return false
end

function isDir(name)
    return (exists(name) and not isFile(name))
end
```

```lua
function file_exists(name)
   local f=io.open(name,"r")
   if f~=nil then io.close(f) return true else return false end
end
```